Sources Sought on Professional Services for USEPA Superfund GE-Pittsfield/Housatonic River Clean-up Project

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District is issuing this Sources Sought Announcement to determine interest, availability and capability of 8(a), HUBZone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, Women-Owned Small Business and Small Business concerns. The NAICS code for the work described below is 541620 with an estimated contract amount of $15 million. Work will begin in Fall 2019 and will extend over a 5-year period and is for technical oversight of response actions performed by General Electric (GE) and their contractors at the GE-Pittsfield/Housatonic River Site, Massachusetts (Site). General Electric (GE) used Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at its 254-acre facility in Pittsfield from 1932 to 1977. During this time, the Transformer Division manufactured and repaired transformers containing dielectric fluids, some of which included PCBs. PCBs and other hazardous substances were released to soil, groundwater, Silver Lake, the Housatonic River and were disposed of within and around the facility in landfills, former river oxbows, and other locations. The Consent Decree (CD) for the GE-Pittsfield/ Housatonic River Site was approved by the federal court in October 2000. The CD may be found on EPA's project website located at: www.epa.gov/ne/ge. The CD, the legal agreement between EPA and GE, segregated the Site into 28 separate cleanups. Other background information is documented on the EPA's GE-Pittsfield/Housatonic River web page at: http://www.epa.gov/region1/ge/. Contract scope will include oversight of GE-lead remedial and removal actions at the Site including the Rest-of-River Reach (river sediment, banks and floodplain soil downstream of the confluence of the East and West Branches of the Housatonic River), the Upper 1/2 Mile Reach, the 1-1/2 Mile Reach, floodplains, the GE Plant site, Silver Lake, Former Oxbow Areas, Allendale School, groundwater, and other areas impacted by GE's operations. Technical services include, but are not limited to, remedial/removal investigations and site characterization,, feasibility studies, review of design documents, oversight of removal/remediation actions, (including sediment remediation activities such as dredging, excavation, and stream restoration) litigation support, oversight of other GE activities, including postremoval site control actions, groundwater investigation, monitoring, assessment and response actions, and any other actions necessary to provide oversight of removal/remediation activities at this site. Additional information about the Site is available at https://www.epa.gov/ge-housatonic. Interested firms should submit a capabilities package that demonstrates experience in a full range of HTRW activities (with project examples) including investigations, studies, design oversight, construction oversight, technical assistance, data management, operations and maintenance as outlined below. Packages should specifically include qualifications and experience performing activities on contaminated sites involving both upland and riverine environments paralleling the following activities: 1) Review GE technical deliverables for compliance with the terms of the Consent Decree and best industry practices, including field oversight and split sampling; Remediation Field oversight: Oversight of groundwater, soil, and large scale sediment investigation and remediation activities. 2) Modeling expertise: Understand and utilize the watershed, hydrodynamic, sediment transport, and PCB fate and bioaccumulation models (HSPF, EFDC and FCM); have the ability to modify model code and ensure its proper use for predicting future conditions under multiple scenarios. 3) Human Health/ Ecological Risk Assessment and Risk Communication: including use of robust statistical analyses. 4) Ecological characterization and riverine and floodplain/vernal pool restoration: including, but not limited to, natural channel design and Massachusetts Natural Heritage Program requirements. 5) Conduct multi-media sampling & analysis for PCBs and other hazardous constituents, analysis, data validation and interpretation; Provide review of GE FSP/QAPPs and subsequent amendments 6) Data Management & Mapping: Maintain and update as necessary an existing large data management system (approximately 2 Gigabytes), GIS system and Auto Cad files. 7) Financial Management & Cost Tracking Capabilities: Manage a complex financial management system with the ability to track costs according to requirements of the Consent Decree; 8) Management and Storage of Project Files. Manage and store, for future retrieval, the project archives to include electronic and hard copies; Current project files consist of over 8,000 documents and other records. 9) Field Office & Staff: Operate, staff, and maintain a field office in Pittsfield for contractor and government personnel; 10) Litigation Support: Provide support for any potential litigation to include expert technical witnesses, presentation materials and logistical support. Note: The following key personnel may be required to address the technical aspects of the project: Program/Contracts Manager, Project Managers, Civil Engineers, Geotechnical Engineers, Geologists, Hydrogeologists, Hydraulics and Hydrologist, Sediment Management Experts, Construction Oversight Managers, Innovative Technologies Specialists, PCB Chemists, Modelers/Programmers, Risk Assessors, Scientists, Ecologists, Fluvial Geomorphologist, Restoration Specialists, Statisticians, Database Managers, GIS personnel, Financial Managers, Contractor Quality Control (CQC) System Manager, Information Management Specialist, and Regulatory Specialists. The capabilities package shall also include the following: business classification (i.e. HUBZone, etc.), bonding capacity, and qualifications and experience in performing the work components stated above. The project examples provided must have been performed within the last ten years. The offer must demonstrate project experience of all of the experience/expertise listed above. However, the experience does not have to be demonstrated on one single project. Please include a Point of Contact and phone number for each project example who may be contacted for further information on contractor's effort and performance. To avoid any conflict of interest, interested parties must not be currently providing or have provided Professional Services to GE at any site including the GE/Housatonic River Site within the past 5 years. Subcontractors may be used to demonstrate this past experience. Responses are due 10/6/2017. Responses should be addressed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, 696 Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742-2751, ATTN: Stephen Jones. Responses are limited to twenty pages. Firms interested shall provide the above documentation in one original form and one copy. The Government will not pay for any material provided in response to this market survey nor return the data provided. This notice is for information purposes only and is not a request to be placed on a solicitation mailing list nor is it a Request for Proposal (RFP) or an announcement of a solicitation. The results of this survey will be considered to be in effect for a period of one year from the date of this notice.