R--Sources Sought and RFI (Recompete 68HERC21D0006)

"National Drinking Water Programs Technical, Engineering, and Administrative Support" (NDWPTEAS)

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water (OW) is performing a "market search" for large and small businesses in preparation for a future procurement that is a recompete of Contract 68HERC21D0006. The EPA is also interested to see if small businesses are capable of meeting this requirement. Information submitted in response to this notice will only be used for internal market research purposes, and no feedback will be offered to the interested parties that submit capability statements.

The subject acquisition is anticipated to provide support services for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW). OGWDW is responsible for implementing the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), a law which establishes a mandatory national program to protect public health through drinking water safety. In accordance with the SDWA, the EPA is responsible for developing regulations and policies for national drinking water quality. EPA is required to regulate contaminants that present health risks that are either known to or likely to occur in public drinking water supplies that present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction. The SDWA Amendments of 1996, as well as several other statutes and executive orders, require that the EPA conduct thorough characterizations of the costs and benefits associated with these regulations. The SDWA requires EPA to identify potential drinking water contaminants, establish criteria for an unregulated contaminant monitoring program, study and gather information on these contaminants, assess whether they require regulation, and review existing regulations every six years and revise as appropriate.

Accordingly, the contractors selected under this acquisition shall provide technical, engineering, and analytical support to the EPA consistent with the Performance Work Statement for efforts related to implementing the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). It is expected that this acquisition will be awarded under a full-and-open competition, however market research is still being conducted to determine if there may be small-business set-aside opportunities. The resultant acquisition is anticipated to utilize the Government Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule to establish a multiple-awardee Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for up to three vendors. The ordering period is anticipated to be up to five (5) years with a maximum ordering value of $115M with Call Orders issued on a Time-and-Materials (T&M) and/or Fixed Price (FP) basis.

To help determine if this potential requirement may be set-aside for small business concerns, the government is seeking input from the small business community regarding their interest and capability in performing the tasks reflected in the attached draft Performance Work Statement (PWS). Vendors are encouraged to use the questionnaire contained in this notice (See Submission Instructions and Capability Information). The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541620 ‘Management and Financial Consulting’ with a size standard of $19M. Respondents should provide their size status for the above referenced NAICS code, (i.e. large, small) and whether or not they are a certified hub zone, 8(a), women-owned, small-disadvantaged and /or disabled veteran owned concern. In addition, the EPA reserves the right to set the resulting procurement action aside for small businesses. As a reminder, small businesses are required to perform at least 50 percent of the costs of the contract performance with their own personnel (See RFO FAR 52.219-14) under a procurement set aside for small businesses.

The Government will review qualifications based on the vendor’s responses with specific emphasis on the vendor’s ability to perform the Scope of Work described in Twelve (12) capability areas in the draft PWS in Section 4. Information submitted in response to this notice is used for internal market research purposes only, and no feedback will be offered to the entities that submit capability statements.

For more information and instructions, please see the attachments included with this announcement.