Redacted_SOLE_SOURCE_JUSTIFICATION.docx

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION STATES THE FOLLOWING PART:

The following information is provided to demonstrate the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications:

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Water Mission Area, Office of Water Quality requests a sole source acquisition with the following provider of atmospheric deposition station operation services for a cooperatively supported station between the USGS and the site owner and operator in support of the interagency National Atmospheric Deposition Program, National Trends Network (NADP-NTN):

Operation of a NADP/NTN wet atmospheric monitoring station. Operation requires weekly site visits to the site to collect process and ship the precipitation sample, collect, process and transmit associated data with the site including the precipitation gage record and perform routine instrument checks, maintenance and repairs as needed. NADP site operations is described in detail in the document “National Trends Network Site Operations Manual” at http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/lib/manuals/opman.pdf

Operation dates for Period of Performance:

Base Year: 03/07/2016-03/06/2017 Option Year One: 03/07/2017-03/06/2018 Option Year Two: 03/07/2018-03/06/2019 Option Year Three: 03/07/2019-03/06/2020 Option Year Four: 03/07/2020-03/06/2021 USGS is responsible for the operation of nine atmospheric deposition sites where the land and the site is owned by another organization, agency or individual and are in restricted scientific research areas, AL99 is one of these nine sites. It is a mutually beneficial scientific and technical partnership between this organization that has purview over the site location and desire the information collected from this site. USGS needs information gathered from this site as part of a national network for national-scale measurement of the status and trends in wet deposition. Moving the site would result in a break of the long-term environment monitoring record, i.e., a new site location data would not be comparable to the previous site, which typically has continuous monitoring data back to the early 1980’s.

The NADP site AL99 is on land owned by Auburn University, Sand Mountain Research Center and is in a private and restricted access research area. Ms. Deborah Lester, a lead employee of the Research Center indicated that Mr. Mack Smith was approved by the University and Research Station to have access to the site, land, and NADP equipment as the information obtained is in the mutual interest of both the Experiment Station and the USGS. Mr. Smith has an agreement with the University and the training required to access this restricted University-owned research area. Ms. Lester indicated that their organization grants access to their research facility only to trained and trusted individuals who have an existing professional relationship with them and Mr. Mack Smith meets this criteria. Some equipment is owned by the USGS and other equipment essential to operating the site such as platforms, electrical power service, access paths, fences, sample processing field laboratory building and roads at the site are owned by Auburn University, Sand Mountain Research Center.

Supporting this site requires 52 trips per year to this location, in rural and very remote areas on land and at scientific research areas that are not open to the public or open to weekly visits by individuals from other private organization. In no case does the USGS own the land or have control over site access.

The primary reason the USGS is not operating this site is because, despite having offices in every state with multiple field offices in most states, we do not have the means or permission to access this site. It is cost prohibitive to USGS to operate this site therefore, USGS is funding the scientific activity and the sponsoring organization maintains control of the site access. USGS offices do operate a number of other sites where we do have the means and access to site locations, but the list of nine sites where we seek sole source awards are the "partnership" site locations where we do not have the means and permission to access the sites. A competitive action would imply that we could unilaterally remove the land-owning and operating organizations or individuals from this activity and replace them with a private entity. This is not the case, since these multi-decade long research and monitoring sites are not under the ownership and control of the USGS, the USGS is funding the scientific activity.

The NADP is a public, nonprofit, unincorporated, interstate association of parties interested in atmospheric deposition and its effects. It is structured as a cooperative program that represents coordinated efforts of many federal, state, academic, and private organizations and individuals to operate monitoring sites, report data, and oversee research activities related to atmospheric deposition. Membership in NADP is open to individuals and institutions interested in participating in any aspect of atmospheric deposition monitoring and/or research stemming from NADP data. This organizational structure is consistent with State Agricultural Experiment Station (SAES) Guidelines for Multi-state Research Activities. The contracts the USGS seeks to award represent partnerships to support sites in the most efficient manner with organizations and individuals that own and control the local site locations. Under the interagency National Acidic Precipitation Assessment Program established in 1981, the USGS is the designated lead agency for the monitoring of atmospheric deposition and NADP is the operational organization through which the USGS and other participating organizations accomplish this national-scale monitoring in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.