--Notice of Intent to Sole Source

Posted Date: May 17, 2013 Procurement Office: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund RCRA Procurement Operations Division (3805R) 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004 Response Date: May 27, 2013 Under the authority of FAR 6.303-1 (a) (b) ? Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy the agency?s requirements. The proposed contract calls for a significant range of scientific capabilities on a relatively limited budget, including microscopic and DNA skills to identify pollen sources, active management of bee hives to enable exposure studies, chemical analytical capabilities to detect trace amounts of pesticides in pollen and in hives, access to corn fields to enable dust-off experiments, and even a public outreach component. In addition, the project requires that the research must be performed in an EPA Region 5 state. Based on current market research, The Pollinator Toxicology Lab in the Entomology Department at The Ohio State University, headed by Dr. Reed Johnson, is located at the Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center in Wooster, OH and is the only research lab in the Region 5 states that possesses all of the above capabilities required to successfully investigate the effects of corn seed-treatment dust on honey bee hives in the field. The ongoing research of the lab focuses on protecting pollinators from pesticides and toxins. They have extensive expertise in investigating the effects of pesticides on honey bees and native pollinators across multiple levels, including the genomic and sub-lethal behavioral levels, as well as the effects of multiple stressors. Based on our market research, the other bee researchers in Region 5 focus on protecting pollinators from diseases specifically or have only examined the effects of pesticides on bees from the exposure angle. Members of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center lab have the requisite practical beekeeping expertise to move, manage and assess the health of honey bee colonies placed within range of fields being planted with seed-treated corn. The lab currently manages 20 honey bee hives that are immediately available for use in field experiments. Members of the lab also have years of experience assessing pesticide concentrations in bees using analytical chemistry tools, including GC-MS, Reversed Phase HPLC and LC-MS-MS, and have access to equipment for performing these analyses within the department that are required to satisfy the statement of work. Lab members also have experience with pollen analysis, which will be a key skill in determining the floral resources utilized by honey bees during the corn planting season which is also necessary under the statement of work. The lab is currently conducting a survey of beekeepers in Ohio for which lab members were required to complete Institutional Review Board training on the handling and collection of location data and have experience performing spatial analyses using GIS, all skills called for in the statement of work. Dr. Johnson is currently planning a preliminary experiment for April 2013 in which pollen will be trapped, identified and analyzed from colonies foraging among the corn-dominated areas in central Ohio. Therefore, this lab is uniquely capable of performing all the elements of th e scope of work presented in the contract. Based on our market research, this lab is the only lab in Region 5 that has the expertise, experience, knowledge and unique capabilities to perform the work and meet the specifications stated in the statement of work. NO SOLICITATION OR REQUEST FOR QUOTE (RFQ) IS AVAILABLE. Notwithstanding, any firm that believes it is capable of meeting EPA's requirement as stated herein may submit a capability statement, which if received within ten (10) calendar days of the date of this announcement will be considered. Responses to this posting must be in writing and provide clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government. A determination not to compete the proposed purchase order based upon the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. All questions should be directed to Ron Bell via the e-mail link below. NO phone calls please. The point of contact for this purchase order is Ron Bell, Contract Specialist, at contact@example.gov