Intent to Award Notice (FBO)_1.pdf

Intent to Award Notice – DOIGFBO210029

The US Geological Survey (USGS) has a requirement for a provider of atmospheric deposition station operation services for a cooperatively supported station between the USGS, the site owner, Auburn

University, and operator in support of the interagency National Atmospheric Deposition Program, National Trends Network (NADP-NTN).

The total anticipated period of performance will be 03/07/2021 - 03/06/2026 (Base year plus four option years).

Location: Station Sand Mountain Research & Extension Center (AL99) Location De Kalb County, Alabama

The USGS is aware of no other source that can provide the above. Therefore, it intends to make an award to Mack Smith unless it is contacted by any vendor who believes they have similar technical expertise and can provide the same service(s). Vendors are invited to contact the Contract Specialist, Leah Williams via email at lwilliams@usgs.gov no later than 12:00 PM EDT, Wednesday, March 03, 2021 with an affirmative answer.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) considers employee signatures to be Personal Protected Information, and therefore all employee signatures have been redacted. By posting this document, the Contracting

Officer attests all appropriate signatures have been obtained.

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (FAR 13.1)

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

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Water Mission Area, Observing Systems Division, Hydrologic

Networks Branch 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):

The proposed action may be awarded on a sole source basis under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1) – only one source reasonably available.

USGS is responsible for the operation of several atmospheric deposition sites where the land and the site are owned by another organization, agency, or individual and are in restricted scientific research areas, AL99 is one of these 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 had 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 mailto:lwilliams@usgs.gov 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 these 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 other individuals that have not been granted approval by the University research station. In no case does the USGS own the and or have control over who has 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 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 another 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.