SOLICITATION NOTICE
A -- Intent to Sole Source - Development of Standardized marine/Estuarine Benthic Indicators for California, Oregon, and Washington
- Notice Date
- 6/11/2007
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Environmental Protection Agency, Ord Service Center/Nerl, Rtp Procurement Operations Division, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
- ZIP Code
- 27711
- Solicitation Number
- RFQ-RT-07-00188
- Response Due
- 6/26/2007
- Archive Date
- 7/26/2007
- Description
- NAICS Code: 541710 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency intends to award a sole source procurement to the Southern California Coastal Waters Research Project Authority, Costa Mesa, CA for the effort as described below. Background: Benthic indicators are used to assess the ecological condition of near-coastal and estuarine ecosystems, and such indicators are often central in management decisions on the suitability of dredge materials, NPDES permitting, Superfund, remediation, and regional assessments conducted under EPA's National Coastal Assessment (EMAP) program. However, as stated in EPA's "National Coastal Condition Report II" (NCCR II, US EPA, 2004), "there is currently no single benthic community index applicable for the entire West Coast." In lieu of a standard benthic index, both NCCR II and NCCR III were forced to use deviations from a diversity-salinity regression as the benthic indicator with the caveat that "Results should be interpreted cautiously because there is only a moderate concordance between lower species richness and indices of water quality or sediment quality." The EPA is proposing to address this gap by building on ongoing work to develop sediment quality objectives (SQO) by the State of California. This California State effort offers the EPA a unique opportunity to develop benthic indicators for the Pacific Coast in timely fashion based on data and approaches that have undergone extensive technical and regulatory review. The technical development of the California SQOs is being conducted by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP). The overall goals of this contract are for 1) SCCWRP to provide their existing proprietary benthic and environmental data set to EPA; 2) use same approaches to further develop this data set for Oregon and Washington; 3) using these data to calculate and analyze four types of benthic indicators that they are evaluating for the State of California; 4) contact/coordinate with states and federal agencies in Oregon and Washington regarding data availability and the application of the California indicators to Oregon and Washington; 5) write a final report on the potential application of the California benthic indicators to Oregon and Washington. A critical component of this contract shall be for SCCWRP to provide to EPA a standardized data set consisting of marine/estuarine benthic species abundances and associated environmental data. This standardized data set shall be used by SCCWRP to calculate the four benthic indicators they have developed for the State of California (under Task B) and used independently by the EPA to evaluate a different suite of benthic indicators. SCCWRP shall provide to EPA their existing data set that they have developed for the State of California. This proprietary data set consists of several thousand records, covering studies dating back to the 1970s. Much of the data were originally collected by SCCWRP in Southern California, and these raw data are available only through databases maintained by SCCWRP. In addition to the data collected by SCCWRP, their data set includes samples from other benthic surveys conducted in California. This compilation is a unique data source that has taken several years to compile. The circumstance permitting Other than Full and Open Competition Justification is FAR 6.301-2, "Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements" due to the proprietary nature of the data to be used by SCCWRP. The period of performance is expected to be from July 2007 for twenty months. All interested parties who believe they can provide the required services should fully explain their capabilities and qualifications in writing within 15 days from the date of this announcement. The intent of this synopsis is to determine if any source(s) exist and, therefore, no RFQ is available. Consequently, any response(s) failing to provide the aforementioned data but instead choosing to merely submit a routine letter requesting a copy of the RFQ will not be honored. Submit your response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RTP Procurement Operations Division (E105-02), Attn: Rebecca Clausen, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711 or e-mail clausen.rebecca@epa.gov.
- Record
- SN01315932-W 20070613/070611221329 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |