Attachment 2 - Statement of Work.doc

Service RFQ

DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/STATEMENT OF WORK

Division 100 - General Specifications

110 – Scope of the Contract

It is the intent of this contract to secure the uniform application of granular fertilizer to designated areas on the Allegheny National Forest in McKean County, Pennsylvania using contractor supplied ground-based equipment.

120 – Description and Location

The areas to be fertilized are located on the Bradford Ranger District of the Allegheny National Forest. All stands have had the overstory removed. Logging slash is present on all sites.

130 – Contractor Furnished Property, Services, Responsibilities and Obligations

131 - The contractor shall furnish all materials, equipment, labor, supervision, and transportation needed to apply the fertilizer.

132 - The contractor shall designate in writing one person on the job to act as the project supervisor, representing the contractor in all contractual matters that require prompt action. This person should be familiar with all equipment being used and shall attend any pre-work meetings.

Before starting each day’s operations, this supervisor will coordinate all activities between the government and the contractor including, but not limited to, logistics, equipment use, and daily plans and schedules. The project supervisor will notify the district inspector early in the day (by 8 am) about where they plan to work, or if they do not plan to work that day.

133 – If the contractor is involved in an accident or serious incident, a written report will be submitted to the Contracting Officer within 48 hours. This report will contain description, cause, and future actions contemplated to avoid future occurrences.

Accidents shall mean destruction or substantial damage to motorized application equipment, or service vehicles, and serious or fatal injury to personnel.

Incidents shall mean any mishap, malfunction, or situation involving equipment or personnel, which results in a deviation from standard procedures or has the potential of resulting in an accident or injury.

134 – The contractor will supply Safety Data Sheets (SDS) for all materials applied.

140 – Government Furnished Property

141 – Radios and Project Area Maps.

Division 200 – Technical Specifications

210 – Application Equipment

A sling-dry-fertilizer system, using a spinning disk(s) to spread the fertilizer, of sufficient size and structure to meet the specified application rates, will be used on this project.

220 – Fertilizer

Materials to be used on this project will be solid form granular or pelleted Urea (46-0-0), and Diammonium Phosphate (18-46-0). Urea fertilizer is very corrosive. Precautions should be made to protect against possible corrosion to application and support equipment. A blended mixture of the two fertilizers must be compatible in particle size and weight so that settling and/or separation will not occur during transportation and handling.

230 – Fertilizer Application

231 – Application will not begin until the government inspector is on the site.

232 – Application shall be made at the rates of 400 lbs. of Urea per acre and 100 lbs. of Diammonium Phosphate per acre, or 500 lbs. of a blended mixture equal to the preceding individual rates. Agrotain G nitrogen stabilizer or similar compatible stabilizer will be used at rate indicated on the product label to reduce nitrogen loss.

233 – Application of specified fertilizer shall be uniform over the entire surface of each unit.

234 – Fertilizer shall not be applied when weather conditions preclude uniform application to the selected areas, nor when conditions such as wind velocity would lead to contamination of areas which are not designated to be fertilized.

235 – If burning of the vegetation occurs from fertilizer fines sticking to the leaves then application will only occur when the leaves are dry.

236 – The Government inspector will identify wet areas, streams or other non – treatment areas where the application equipment is not permitted to traverse prior to treating a unit.

237 – Contractor shall avoid damaging saw timber and pole timber crop trees with the application equipment.

238- Application areas are marked on the ground by a bright orange tag labeled at a minimum with “2024 Fertilizer”. The application area itself will have orange painted “///” and or pink or orange flagging.

240 – Equipment Cleaning Provisions – Non-Native Invasive Weed Control Contractor shall ensure that prior to moving any equipment to the Allegheny National Forest, all equipment such as but not limited to: Mechanized spreaders, augers, shovels, and any other project related equipment are free of soil, seeds, vegetative matter or other debris that could contain or hold seeds. Off-road equipment used for transport of materials such as ATVs and trailers shall also be free of soil, seeds, vegetative matter, or other debris that could contain or hold seeds. Equipment shall be considered free of soil, seeds, and other such debris when a visual inspection does not disclose such material.

Disassembly of equipment components, or specialized inspection tools are not required. Cleaning of equipment may entail brushing or hosing off. The use of detergents or other cleaning agents are not to be used unless they are used at car wash or other facility equipped for water catchment and treatment. Equipment is not to be cleaned in streams, ditches, or other waterways.

250 – Scheduling

The intention of the Forest Service is to work during the application window whenever conditions are acceptable. To avoid personnel fatigue a rest day will be taken during each seven (7) day working period, normally when the weather conditions are not favorable for application. This rest day could fall on any day of the week. Operations on weekends is permitted, if necessary, to complete the contract on time.

260 – Spills

The contractor must have proper equipment and materials available for containing ground spills, cleaning them up, and disposing of the contaminated fertilizer. Fertilizer wasted through spills will not count as fertilizer properly applied, and no payment will be made for spilled fertilizer. Report to the Government Inspector on site any spill greater than 500lbs or spills that necessitate the need for medical attention.

270 – Sequence of areas to be fertilized

The government reserves the right to order a treatment time for certain units, which may differ from the established priority.

280 – Delivery/Submittals

Delivery schedule – The period of performance of this contract is from April 29, 2024, to May 24, 2024.

290 – Measurement and Payment

291 – Measurement of the units is determined by GPS satellite mapping.

292 – Payment will be made for treated and accepted acres. Payment for fertilizer and nitrogen stabilizer will be at market price.

293 – Documentation – The contractor shall furnish truck weight tickets for delivery of bulk fertilizer. Contractor will furnish purchase receipts for fertilizer and stabilizer used.

Biobased & Recycled Content Products

All supplies and materials shall be of a type and quantity that conform to applicable Federal specifications and standards, and to the extent feasible and reasonable; include the exclusive use of biobased and recycled products.

For more information regarding the Department of Agriculture Biobased Affirmative Procurement Program go to http://www.biopreferred.gov/bioPreferredCatalog/faces/jsp/catalogLanding.jsp.

For more information regarding Environmental Protection Agency list of designate products go to http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/tools/cpg/products/index.htm.

INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE

PERFORMANCE-BASED SERVICE CONTRACT (PBSC) REQUIREMENTS

DISINCENTIVES:

If the assigned acreage is not completed in accordance with the delivery schedule or there are more than one accident or fertilizer spills that require reporting to the Contracting Officer, as required by the specifications, contract price for application will be decreased by a 3% premium.

For cases of poor or late performance these disincentives are in addition to other contract remedies available to the Government.

DELIVERIES OR PERFORMANCE

The period of performance of this contract is from April 29 through May 24, 2024.

The Contractor shall maintain progress at a rate which shall assure completion and acceptance of work within the specified contract time.

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION DATA

DESIGNATION OF CONTRACTING OFFICER'S REPRESENTATIVE

The Contracting Officer will designate a Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) at the time of award.

The COR is responsible for administering the performance of work under this contract. In no event, however, will any understanding, agreement, modification, change order, or other matter deviating from the terms of this contract be effective or binding upon the Government unless formalized by proper contractual documents executed by the Contracting Officer prior to completion of the contract.

On all matters that pertain to the contract terms the contractor must communicate with the Contracting Officer. Whenever, in the opinion of the Contractor, the COR requests effort outside the scope of the contract, the Contractor should so advise the COR. If the COR persists and there still exists a disagreement as to proper contractual coverage, the contracting officer should be notified immediately, preferably in writing if time permits. Proceeding with work without proper contractual coverage could result in nonpayment or necessitate submittal of a contract claim.

GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED PROPERTY

The Government will provide the following item(s) of Government property to the Contractor for use in the performance of this contract. This property shall be used and maintained by the Contractor in accordance with the provisions of the "Government Property" FAR clause contained elsewhere in the contract:

Radios and Project Area Maps. Radios will be issued as needed for communication. Radios will be issued and collected daily.

INVOICING

The "Submit Invoice-to" address for USDA orders is the Department of Treasury's Invoice Processing Platform (IPP). All invoices are to be submitted online via the electronic Invoice Processing Platform. This is a mandatory requirement initiated by the U.S. Department of Treasury and you can find more information at this website https://www.ipp.gov/index.htm. Your company must register at https://www.ipp.gov/vendors/enrollment-vendors.htm to establish an account in order to submit an invoice on this project.

SPECIAL CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

EQUIPMENT CLEANING

All soil moving equipment shall be thoroughly cleaned to make it free of soil, noxious weed seeds, vegetative matter or other debris that could contain or hold seeds prior to being delivered to the project site. Equipment shall be considered free of soil, noxious weed seeds and other such debris when a visual inspection by the C.O.R., prior to the equipment being delivered to the site, does not disclose such material present. Disassembly of equipment components is not required. The Contractor shall notify the Forest Service at least five (5) working days prior to moving each piece of soil moving equipment onto the project site, unless otherwise agreed.

The Contractor shall thoroughly clean all soil moving equipment prior to moving them off a project site or between work areas on a project site that are known to be infested with noxious weed species of concern and other work areas, if any, that are free of noxious weed species of concern. Areas known to be infested with specific noxious weed species of concern to the Forest Service shall be noted in the Schedule of Work. The Contractor and the Forest Service shall agree on the methods of cleaning, location for the cleaning and control of off-site impacts, if any.

When new areas of infestation of noxious weeds of concern to the Forest Service are identified on the project site by either the Forest Service or Contractor they shall be promptly reported to the other party.