Sole_Source_-_RFQ.pdf

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration

Eastern Region Acquisition Division

Norfolk Federal Building

200 Granby Street, Room 815

Norfolk, VA 23510

BRAND NAME/SINGLE SOURCE DETERMINATION USING

SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES (SAP)

FOR AN ACTION NOT EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: FAR 13.106-1(b)(1))

(NFFKPR00-19-02682)

1. Agency and contracting activity. Department of Commerce, NOAA Acquisition and Grants

Office (AGO), Simplified Acquisition Branch and NMFS, Marine Mammal Conservation Division, Silver Spring, MD.

2. Description of supplies or services required to meet agency needs (including the estimated value).

To provide secure room temperature storage of paraffin blocks and wet formalin fixed tissues from marine mammals cases submitted by the NMFS Marine Mammal Health and

Stranding Program network members, especially during Unusual Mortality Events

(UMEs), to further our understanding of health, health trends, and diseases of marine mammal populations in the wild.

3. Identification of the single source or the brand name to be solicited.

EPL Pathology Archives, LLC

45610 Terminal Dr.

Sterling, VA 20166-4300

(703)435-8780

4. Supporting rationale. Only one source or brand name is reasonably available as detailed below:

Other - Only one source is capable - NMFS Office of Protected Resources works throughout the United States and abroad to detect, investigate, and respond to marine animal health and emergency response issues. Specifically, the archiving and storage capabilities of EPL

Archives LLC will be used for health and disease investigations of stranded and live captured wild marine mammals including UME investigations.

The EPL Archives LLC is uniquely qualified to assist with the secure room temperature storage of paraffin blocks and wet formalin fixed tissues from marine mammals. EPL

Archives LLC currently can accept our previously archived samples from Experimental

Pathology Laboratories, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina (an affiliated company) and transfer and accept those samples for no cost. Once transferred EPL Archives LLC will house the existing paraffin block and wet formalin fixed tissues from marine mammals from recent UME and'Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) investigations.

They have significant expertise and experience in archiving and storing paraffin blocks and wet formalin fixed tissues including maintaining samples in limited access areas under Chain-of-custody (COC) for law-enforcement investigations. They also have the ability to pull samples from storage for additional research on cases as needed.

5. Market Research.

A sources sought notice for services provided by the Experimental Pathology

Laboratories, Inc. was posted to Federal Business Opportunities in August 2014.

Experimental Pathology Laboratories, Inc. was the only responsible source that submitted a capability statement by the closing date, which confirmed that only one source is capable of performing this requirement.

As mentioned above, Experimental Pathology Laboratories, Inc. currently houses existing marine mammal blocks and tissues and has the necessary training, expertise and experience in dealing with tissues and samples from marine mammals and is an affiliated company of EPL Archives LLC. Experimental Pathology Laboratories is leaving the tissue archiving sector and has arranged to transfer at no-cost existing samples to EPL

Archives LLC, thereby saving the government additional transfer and storage costs if these samples had to be moved to a different location prior to establishing a new contract.