Attachment__2_ERTP_Large_PWSFinal.pdf

RFQ-DC-15-00190 (eBuy RFQ 1063096)

ATTACHMENT 2: PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE TRAINING PROGRAM

A. BACKGROUND

As part of EPA's comprehensive mandate for protecting the public and the environment from chemical incidents resulting from transportation accidents, releases from industrial operations, deliberate releases and hazards associated with the investigations and cleanup of contaminated sites, The Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) developed and operates a training program providing courses in safety and technical operations related to hazard identification, evaluation, control and decontamination.

The Environmental Response Team (ERT), part of the Office of Superfund Remediation and

Technology Innovation (OSRTI) is responsible for developing and managing the Environmental

Response Training Program (ERTP). The Training Program is designed to train EPA personnel, as well as personnel from federal, state, and local government agencies in techniques and methods for preventing, evaluation, mitigating, and remediating chemical releases while protecting the health and safety of response personnel and the public. In addition, to increase the number of training courses available to the response community, EPA has developed the External

Provider Program (EPP), which provides training and basic course material packages to qualified training providers. These providers then conduct the training and participants receive EPA certificates upon completion of the training.

The training courses presented under the training program last from 1 to 5 days. They provide participants with fundamental information about the subjects covered, providing a foundation for developing knowledge and skills in a variety of response activities. All presentations emphasize the practical application of instructional material through problem-solving, case studies, lectures, workshops, demonstrations, exercises, and special training sessions.

Since January 2009 the ERTP has operated under two contracts. A full and open contract that is capable of running the entire program and a set-aside contract for small businesses to focus on

OSHA required Health and Safety Courses.

This performance work statement is for the full and open requirement. The training courses are presented at locations throughout the United States through arrangements with EPA's ten regional offices and Headquarters. Specific tasks to be performed are set forth in the scope of work.

B. SCOPE OF WORK

The contractors shall organize, manage, and present the training program courses, exercises, workshops etc. as directed in task orders issued by the Contracting Officer. This will include the following:

1. General

The contractor will be responsible for managing and directing the training program, presenting existing courses/exercises, developing and presenting new courses/exercises, and providing professional instructors and auxiliary staff needed to operate the program.

The training program includes training topics involving technical operations related to sampling, detection, identification, assessment, mitigation, site stabilization, remediation evaluation, control, and decontamination. It also includes process, management, and instruction method topics related to improving the performance of On Scene

Coordinators (OSC) and Remedial Program Managers (RPM). The Contractor may also be required to develop and deliver new training courses.

The contractor shall provide for the shipment of equipment and training materials to course/exercise/event locations.

The contractor shall develop, organize, and present new training and employ state-of-the-art training techniques.

The contractor may be tasked to present courses outside the boundaries of the United

States to EPA’s international partners.

1.1 Training Presentations: The contractor shall present the training topics identified in

Exhibit 1. The format of presentations may need to be changed to meet Agency needs.

Detailed descriptions of the courses can be found at www.ERTPVU.org and www.TRAINEX.org. A schedule of the training program for FY2014 is attached in

Exhibit 2. It is anticipated that the magnitude of the contract will remain approximately the same, although actual courses given will vary from year to year.

1.2 Staffing and Equipment: The contractor shall provide adequate staff, instructors, and equipment to present the training courses [except for Incident Command System (ICS)

Key Leadership Position (KLP) courses] as required by the task orders. The instructors provided must have applicable technical expertise, and actual experience performing the skills being taught, as well as good presentation skills and a sound understanding of

Adult Educational Methods. The contractor shall provide staff to perform administrative support of courses taught by EPA, and for the ISC KLP courses provide staff on site to support EPA instructors and facilitate exercise. On occasion the contractor shall coordinate with the Contracting Officer Technical Representative (COTR) and other EPA subject matter experts to team teach the courses. Team teaching will be determined based on technical direction from the contract Project Officer or from COTR. All staff shall be compliant with the Agency Personal Verification Procedures for Contractor

Personnel as outlined in Exhibit 3 of the statement of work. In addition to lectures, these courses provide extensive hands-on experience for attendees through exercises and drills.

The courses are identified in Exhibit 1 of the statement of work. Equipment whether contractor owned or rented must be state of the art and in good working condition.

1.3 Training Evaluations: The contractor shall have students fill out an evaluation after each training event. The evaluations should be summarized in a course summary report.

An example of an evaluation can be found in Exhibit 4.

2. Administration

The contractor shall provide overall administrative support to the program as a whole and to the courses, events, and video courses including;

2.1 Scheduling: The contractor shall coordinate with the Regional Training Coordinators

(RTCs) to identify course/exercise needs, and to schedule courses and exercises, including determining location and dates. A point system which assigns a point value to each course will be used to determine how many courses each region can request for a year. Each region will be allotted a certain number of points each year as determined by the EPA Project Officer. The point value of courses and exercises will be determined by the EPA Project Officer, and will be conveyed to the contractor via technical direction.

The contractor shall also work with the Project Officer (PO), TCORs, regional or office representatives and others to schedule courses additional courses, workshops and events requested per technical direction. The location and dates of training will be determined through coordination with the Regional Training Coordinator, or other designated regional or EPA office representative. Scheduled courses with open registration will be posted on trainex.org for registration.

The contractor shall participate on monthly OSWER Training Team coordination calls.

2.2 Procuring Facilities: The EPA will usually provide classroom/training space in regional offices, or space provided by EPA response partners (State, Local, and Tribal etc.) On rare occasions it may be necessary for the contractor to provide space.

2.3 External Program: The contractor shall provide technical support to the EPA in monitoring the "External Provider Programs" providers for consistency with the EPA courses. This includes evaluating new providers that apply to the program. The contractor shall also maintain "External Provider Program" records, and supply the external programs with the required master materials for EPA courses, provide electronic certificates, and coordinate with the small business contractor to ensure that the current materials are posted on ERTPVU.org.

2.4 Annual Course Updates: All standard courses ICS and Technical courses as well as the core elements of Air Monitoring and Oil Response courses shall be kept current with the latest information, techniques, and equipment and field procedures. On an annual basis the contractor shall evaluate all training materials for each course as to content, quality and effectiveness and shall recommend to the EPA PO appropriate course modifications, with a schedule for making the recommended modifications. Upon approval by the PO by technical direction the modifications shall be made. The contract shall schedule these review so that they are evenly distributed throughout the year. ISC

KLP courses are not given on a regular basis and therefore shall be reviewed when one is scheduled (if it has not been given in the last 12 months).

2.5 Registration: The contractor shall serve as the Registrar for the courses, and notify of attendees when they are accepted into the course, the logistical information on the course, and of any changes to the course.

2.6 Records: The contractor shall maintain up to date records on individuals who participate in the training program. The contractor and its personnel are subject to the

EPA's Privacy Act (furnished upon request) and must abide by its procedures. The

Contractor and its employees may be criminally liable for violations of the Act. The

Contractor, upon request, will provide statistics and reports on the training programs, and duplicate (electronic) certificates for students.

2.7 Reports/Financial: Preparation of financial reports, program statistics, and other periodical reports required by the contract, including a monthly report/invoice, and a quarterly statistical report.

2.8 Translation: The contractor shall be capable of providing translation services of written course material, and oral translation during the presentation of a course. This capability may be utilized for domestic and/or international presentations. It is most likely that the translation required would be for Spanish, but may include other languages. The need for translation services would be conveyed to the contractor via technical direction.

2.9 Course Material Preparation: The contractor shall prepare the materials necessary to present training, including manuals, problem and exercise workbooks, handouts, CD's, video and audio tapes, etc.

In accordance with Executive Order 13589 – Promoting Efficient Spending, Section 5;

printing of hard copy documents should be keep to a minimum. Course manuals and materials should be posted on ERTPVU.org and when appropriate on epaosc.net and students should be given a link to the material when they are given confirmation of registration and instructions to download and/or print the materials before the course.

Any hard copy manuals shall be reused, or preferably not used at all.

In the rare occasion that printing of manuals is required, EPA will provide the printing;

however, the Contractor may need to perform limited duplication as per EPA Order

2200.4a, EPA Publication Review Procedure. The Contractor shall be responsible for the timely notice to EPA to ensure printed materials are available for scheduled courses and shall be responsible for collating, assembling and binding of course materials.

The contractor shall organize and maintain files for all training materials including, but not limited to, lecture notes, visual and audio aids, reference materials, and instructional program outlines.

2.10 Course Cost Estimates & Reconciliation: Preparation of cost estimates for the actual presentation of courses/exercises at least 12 weeks before the actual presentation; and reconciled cost within 12 weeks of the completion of the course/exercise.

2.11 Coordination with Other EPA contractors: The contractor shall coordinate with other EPA support contractors as necessary to meet the requirements of this scope of work. Examples of coordination is to provide course information to EPA's training registration system, TRAINEX.org, operated by another EPA contractor; to obtain current course material from the ERTP small business contractor to post on ERTPVU; to provide quarterly statistical information to the OSRTI small business support contractor;

and to coordinate with the OSRTI support contractor on conferences such as NARPM.

There may also be other times when the contractor will need to coordinate with other

EPA contractors.

2.12 Administrative Support of EPA Taught Courses: The contract shall provide for

Administrative support of EPA taught courses. Administrative support includes scheduling, posting the course on Trainex, registration and notification of students, sending course materials (agendas, workbooks, student registration cards, and student evaluation sheets), issuing certificates, summarizing student evaluations, and maintaining student records. It is generally performed for 4-6 ICS courses a year, and may be done for other courses based on technical direction.

3. Non Classroom & Specialty Training

3.1 Environmental Response Training Program Virtual University: The contractor shall maintain and administer the ERTPVU.org website. This will include hosting online courses from other EPA offices, and posting online modules based on ERTP courses as directed through task orders and technical direction, as well as maintaining collaboration sites for external providers and other course development groups.

3.2 On-line Course Development: The contractor shall develop on-line modules based on classroom course modules and on other topics based on Technical Direction. It is anticipated that there will be 5 – 10 modules developed per year.

3.3 ERTP Presents and Other Webinars: The contractor shall coordinate with the PO, ERT Subject matter experts and OSRTI to schedule, assist in development and support of quarterly ERTP presents Clu-In Webinars. Other Webinars may be supported as directed by Technical direction.

3.4 New/Specialty Course Development: The contractor shall develop special training sessions such as new courses, workshops, and technology seminars to support the EPA

Superfund program, upon request through technical direction. In 2014 two new courses;

Ecological Risk Assessment and Health & Safety for Site Managers were developed.

3.5 New/Specialty Course Presentation: The contractor shall present special training sessions such as new courses, workshops, and technology seminars to support the EPA

Superfund program, upon request through technical direction.

3.6 Conferences and Workshops: The contractor shall develop and support approximately 8-14 training sessions for the annual National Association of Remedial

Project Managers (NARPM) conference. Support will include planning and developing the training sessions, and providing onsite support and/or instruction of the sessions. The number and type of training sessions will be determined by the EPA NARPM co-chairs based on program needs. The contractor shall attend two annual NARPM planning meetings a list of the sessions supported at the 2014 NARPM conference can be found in

Exhibit 2.

The contractor may be tasked to support selected training sessions and exercises at upcoming OSC Readiness/OSC Academy type conferences, similar to the support of the

NARPM conference.

The contractor may be tasked to support training sessions and exercises at other conferences by Technical Direction.

3.7 Video Teleconference (VTC) support: The contractor shall be prepared to provide classroom support to VTC satellite locations for both standard and other courses per technical direction.

3.8 Train the Trainer course: The contractor shall be prepared to teach the KLP train the trainer course in conjunction with and KLP course deliveries approximately 2-3 times a year.

4. Exercises and Air Courses

4.1 Readiness & Incident Management Team (IMT) Exercises: The contractor shall plan, organize, present and monitor drills, exercises and seminars to evaluate the readiness of

EPA, local, state and government response personnel. Exercises may involve operations, Incident Management Teams (IMTs), Emergency Operations Center (EOC), and management personnel procedures. Exercises will include drills, table tops, functional and full scale exercises, including Incident IMT exercises. Drills and full scale exercises may include dress out in levels of protection up to Level A for the participants. Exercise support may include development of scenarios, simulated data, props, injects, player and controller play books, etc. Some exercises will be scheduled through the RTCs; others may be scheduled through special request through a region or EPA office. The contractor shall work with the EPA Regional Contact for the exercise to determine their needs for the exercise and then design it accordingly. The contractor shall provide personnel trained in the Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Process (HSEEP), and familiar with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command

System (ICS) to support these exercises. The contractor shall provide enough monitors

(along with any EPA or response partner monitors) to ensure that an exercise is conducted safely. If an EPA Regional contact for an exercise ever request a drill or exercise element that the contractor feel may not be able to be performed safely they shall address their concern with the PO or COTR.

4.2 Air Monitoring Courses: The contractor shall prepare and present the Air Monitoring for Hazardous Materials (AMFHM) and the Air Monitoring for Emergency Response

(AMFER) based on the needs of the regions and the response partners that are the target audience for the courses. This may include customizing the course to cover the equipment of the host region and/organization, and then using the hosts equipment for the course; combining elements of both courses to create one course; and creating new course modules and/or exercises.

The contractor shall be flexible on the scheduling of these courses especially the

AMFER course, and may need to deliver two courses at the same location. As and example it is not unheard of to deliver two sessions of the AMFER course to a Fire or

HAZMAT organization with one session being given on Wednesday and Friday, and the other on Thursday and Saturday to meet the scheduling needs of various shifts in the department.

5. Oil Response Training

The contractor shall be prepared to prepare and present ERTPs cadre of Oil Spill

Response Training courses. These courses will generally be scheduled by the TOCOR in conjunctions with the Oil Program Managers and regional OSCs. The contractor shall provide instructors with applicable technical expertise, and actual experience on responding to oil spills performing the skills being taught. The contractor should expect to be team teaching these courses with the TOCOR and other ERT and EPA subject matter experts.

The courses may need to be adjusted to meet the needs of the students, and or develop new course modules. The contractor shall coordinate with the host what equipment they have that can and should be used in the course. On occasion ERTP will partner with other federal partners and the contractor will need to coordinate with the TOCOR on what parts of the course ERTP will be presenting. A list of ERTPs core Oil Response courses can be found in Exhibit One.

The contractor may be directed to support Oil Response training at upcoming OSC

Academy type events.

6. Standard Courses Presentations

The contractor should be prepared to present the ERTP list of standard courses. These are the courses given on a regular basis, which require no modifications other than the annual review mentioned in 2.4 above.

The contractor shall provide qualified instructors with the skills outlined in 1.3 above.

6.1 Technical courses: The contractor shall present the following courses as scheduled through the RTCs and other EPA Regional/Office representatives;

Introduction to Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund

(IRAGS)

Ecological Risk Assessment Guidance for

Superfund(ERAGS)

IRAGs/ERAGs

Radiation Safety Overview/Practical

Advanced Radiation Safety

Chemistry for Environmental Professionals

(CEP)Applied/Fundamental

Hazardous Materials Technician (HMT)

Sampling for Hazardous Materials (SFHM)

Introduction to Groundwater Investigations (IGWI)

Advanced Groundwater Investigations (AGWI)

IGWI/AGWI

Environmental Remediation Technologies (ERT)

Introduction to Environmental Geophysics (IEG)

Overview of Environmental Geophysics (OEG)

6.2 ICS courses: The contractor shall provide staff familiar with the National Incident

Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS) to support and team teach with EPA instructors the ICS 300 and ICS 400 courses, see Exhibit 1. The

Contractor shall be prepared to present the ICS 300/400 course, with instructors that are

FEMA certified without support from EPA instructors.

The contractor shall provide staff familiar with the National Incident Management

System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS) to support EPA instructors that are teaching a Key Leadership Position (KLP) Course. This support will include providing on site administrative support, and assistance in facilitating exercises. The

KLP courses are the EPA 300 and 400 level courses listed in Exhibit 1.

6.3 Health & Safety courses: The contractor shall present the Health & Safety for Site

Supervisors course as scheduled through the RTCs and other Regional/Office representatives. The Contractor may also be tasked with the delivery of health and safety courses outlined under the small business set-aside portion of the training program including the 40 Hour HAZWOPER course, the 24 Hour modification of the 40 hour course, and the 8 hour HAZWOPER refresher.

NOTE: The contractor will only be guaranteed the amount of work that can be provided with the available funding.