EPA Remedial Acquisition Framework: Environmental Services and Operations (ESO)

The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Land and Emergency Management established the EPA Remedial Acquisition Framework: Environmental Services and Operations (ESO) Master IDIQ on August 1, 2018, with ordering authority that closed on July 30, 2023. The vehicle is no longer accepting new task orders; the ordering period has been closed for nearly three years.

Despite the closed ordering window, the ESO remains active with ongoing task-order execution. The portfolio contains 261 total awards across 17 prime contractors, with $275.8 million in combined potential value and $176.1 million (64%) already obligated. Recent ordering momentum has decelerated: the vehicle averaged 26 orders per year from 2022 through 2024 but dropped to 23 orders in 2025 and 16 through mid-2026. The most recent task order was awarded on July 13, 2026, confirming continued activity despite the July 2023 ordering cutoff.

The work spans seven functional areas including field work and analytical support, EPA-lead remedy operations and long-term response actions, preliminary assessment and site inspections, oversight services, and remedial action implementation support. Task orders are heavily concentrated in environmental site remediation, remedial investigation/feasibility studies, treatment system operations and maintenance, five-year reviews, groundwater monitoring, and site oversight at Superfund and federal facility sites.

Techlaw Consultants Inc., EA Engineering Science and Technology Inc. PBC, and OCH JV dominate the prime contractor base, holding 150 of 261 orders (76% coverage) and $213.9 million (78%) of combined potential value. Techlaw leads with 56 orders worth $65.9 million combined potential, followed by EA Engineering with 49 orders and $49.5 million. Competition among the remaining 12 primes is fragmented, with individual firms holding 12 to 35 orders.

Customer concentration clusters within EPA regional offices. Region 5 placed the most orders (82), followed by Region 3 (34), Region 9 (35), and Region 7 (33); these four regions account for 78% of task-order activity. Regions 1, 2, 8, and 10 place fewer orders. About 40% of task orders carry small-business set-asides, with the remainder unrestricted competitive.

Task-order values span from under $100 thousand to multi-million-dollar efforts. Recent awards show ceiling values ranging from roughly $98 thousand to $13.2 million, with many in the $200 thousand to $1 million range. Several mega-orders exceed $5 million, including a $11.2 million ceiling for Southeast Missouri site support, a $10.8 million ceiling for federal facilities general site support, and an $8.2 million ceiling for lead service line inventory technical support. Most orders run 18 to 36 months, with pricing models split between firm-fixed-price, time-and-materials, labor-hours, and cost-plus-fixed-fee structures. Place of performance is nationally distributed across all EPA regions, with no single geographic concentration.

The work areas under this ESO contract are separated into seven functional areas (tasks): 1. General Requirements; 2. Field Work and Analytical Support; 3. EPA-lead Remedy Operations including Long Term Response Action (LTRA); 4. Preliminary Assessment/Site Inspection; 5. Oversight or Oversight Support; 6. EPA-lead Remedial Action or EPA-lead Removal Action Implementation Support; 7. Other Technical Assistance