THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS FOR WRITTEN INFORMATION ONLY. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED FROM THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is performing market research for large and small businesses in preparation for a future procurement.

The EPA has a need for support to the Office of Water (OW), Office of Science and Technology (OST), National Water Programs and other OW offices, including the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW), the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (OWOW), and the Office of Wastewater Management (OWM) by providing professional services to develop, revise, and implement ecological criteria for the protection of water quality on a national, state, and site-specific basis.

To be considered a potential source, a firm must demonstrate it is able to provide the necessary personnel and services to support the effort delineated by the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS). Important components of the activities to be performed to support OW’s objectives are the capability to provide professional services to develop, revise, and implement ecological criteria for the protection of water quality on a national, state, and site-specific basis. This technical and regulatory support requires experience in aquatic toxicology, aquatic chemistry, sediment toxicology, ecotoxicology, statistics, bioaccumulation, nutrients and nutrification, biological assessment, biocriteria, aquatic biology, wildlife toxicology, suspended and bedded sediments, biosolids risk assessment, fate and effects and transport modeling, geochemical speciation modeling, aquatic life criteria development, and other human health and ecological criteria development derivation procedures.

A draft PWS is attached. It is anticipated that the contract will be a single award IDIQ contract with a five-year ordering period with one additional year for task completion. The anticipated contract will also include an option to extend services for up to six months. The government is still considering which task order type(s) will be utilized, and is contemplating firm fixed price, and cost-plus-fixed-fee task orders. The total level of effort of approximately 23,350 hours is anticipated over the five-year period of the contract. The applicable NAICS code is 541620 with a size standard of $16.5 million.

The contractor must be capable of performing these required services in an unbiased and objective manner. Because of the nature of the PWS requirements, the EPA contends that significant COI would exist if the award were made to entities with business or financial relationships within the following groups:

• Entities that work with those discharging wastewater, such as involved with natural resource extraction or production, energy generation, industrial or chemical manufacture/production activities, or wastewater treatment activities.

• Entities that manufacture or sell water treatment technologies and/or consult to wastewater dischargers about water and/or wastewater treatment.

Interested parties with the capability of providing the services described in the draft PWS are invited to submit a ten (10) page document, in writing, sufficient to clearly demonstrates their ability to provide the services described in the draft PWS, including personnel, experience and qualifications. A description of similar services previously or currently provided shall be provided. The information should include: size status for the above referenced NAICS code, (i.e. large, small); whether the firm is a certified Hubzone, 8(a), women-owned, small disadvantaged and/or service disabled veteran-owned small business concern; point of contact; telephone number; email address, and interest in proposing on the solicitation when issued. Additionally, interested parties should include a discussion of the capability of the firm’s accounting system to implement a cost accounting system required of a cost-type contract in the event the government elects to utilized cost plus fixed-fee task orders. Previous experience with cost-type government contracts should also be discussed. Standard company brochures will not be considered a sufficient response to this Sources Sought Synopsis.

The EPA reserves the right to set this action aside for small businesses if it determines that there are two or more small businesses able to compete in terms of market prices, quality, and delivery. If set aside, a small business would be required to comply with FAR 52.219-14.

Capabilities Statements in response to this Sources Sought Synopsis MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE FEDCONNECT PORTAL MESSAGE CENTER by 12:00 p.m. EST, on September 5, 2023. Any questions regarding the content of this Sources Sought Synopsis announcement must be submitted through the FedConnect portal. You must register with FedConnect to submit documents, questions, and to view responses. FedConnect can be accessed at https://www.fedconnect.net/Fedconnect/. FedConnect is a web portal that connects agencies and vendors to streamline the process of doing business with the federal government. Through FedConnect contractors will be able to receive, review and respond to contract pre- and post-award actions and documents such as correspondence, request for proposals, tasking instruments and contract modifications. The use of FedConnect also furthers the EPAs commitment to moving towards a paperless acquisition environment by reducing its carbon footprint and conducting its business in an ecologically friendly manner. There is no charge to use FedConnect. Vendors can register with FedConnect at www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/. For assistance in registering or for other FedConnect technical questions please call the FedConnect Help Desk at (800) 899-6665 or email at support@fedconnect.net. In addition, all vendors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), as this facilitates registration for FedConnect. Please note that vendors MUST have their SAM profile set to “public,” otherwise FedConnect will not be able to access the SAM information required to validate vendor credentials. Registration may be completed and information regarding the registration process may be obtained at http://www.sam.gov. There is no charge for registration in SAM.

A separate synopsis will be issued for any Request for Proposal (RFP) resulting from this Sources Sought Synopsis. Any resulting contract(s) from the RFP would be a follow-on to contract 68HERC20D0019 with Great Lakes Environmental Center.

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