Sources Sought (2nd Notice) ERMA23.docx

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY. This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Quote (RFQ)/Invitation for Bid (IFB)/Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFQ, IFB or RFP in the future. This notice does not commit the U.S. Government to contract for any supply or service. Further, the U.S. Government is not seeking quotes, bids or proposals at this time and will not accept unsolicited proposals in response to this sources sought notice. The U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this notice. Submittals will not be returned to the responder. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future RFQ or IFB or RFP, if any is issued. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the Government-wide Point of Entry (GPE) through beta.sam.gov. It is the responsibility of potential offerors to monitor the GPE for additional information pertaining to this requirement.

1. The Mission Installation Contracting Command in Fort Sam Houston (MICC-FSH) on behalf of the U.S. Army Environmental Command (USAEC) is issuing a second sources sought synopsis as a means of conducting additional market research to identify more sources having an interest in and the resources to provide a broad-spectrum environmental remediation services at various Installations/locations throughout the contiguous United States (CONUS) and Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska. The anticipated work would be conducted under the Installation Restoration Program (IRP), Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP), Base Realignment and Closure Program (BRAC), Compliance Cleanup Program (CC), and/or the Operational Range Assessment Program (ORAP), which are program areas under the Army Environmental Cleanup Program. Further detail is provided in the "draft" Performance Work Statement (PWS) included as an attachment to this notice.

2. The Army intends to competitively award a $510 million performance-based environmental remediation multiple award (ERMA) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with two potential business suites, one for small business suite and one unrestricted business suite. The Army anticipates awarding a maximum of seven (7) contracts under each business suite. The unrestricted business suite will be awarded utilizing full and open competition while the small business suite will be 100% set aside for small businesses. The IDIQs will have the ability to issue firm-fixed-price (FFP) and cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF) task orders and will have a five (5) year base ordering period with a ten (10) year period of performance. This acquisition will replace the existing Environmental Remediation Multiple Award (ERMA) IDIQ contract with an anticipated award date of 30 November 2022.

3. Based on the responses to this sources sought notice/market research, this requirement may be set-aside for small business or procured through full and open competition. Be advised that the U.S. Government will not be able to set aside this requirement if 2 or more small businesses do not respond with information to support the set-aside nor consider an unrestrictive suite if not enough large businesses respond to this notice. Thus, we encourage large businesses and all small businesses, in all socioeconomic categories (including, 8(a) Alaskan Native Corporation (ANC), Tribally Owned Firm, and Native Hawaiian Organization (NHO), Small Disadvantage Business, Historically Underutilized Business Zone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, Women-Owned Small Business concerns), to respond with their capabilities statement to this sources sought notice.

4. The contemplated NAICS code for this requirement is 562910 (Environmental Remediation Services) with a size standard of 750 Employees. In your opinion, does this NAICS code fit this requirement? If not, which NAICS code would you suggest and why?

5. Questions regarding this Sources Sought announcement shall be submitted no later than 22 November 2021 by 4:00 PM Central Time (CT). After this deadline, questions may not be considered regarding this announcement. Verbal questions will not be accepted. All questions MUST be in writing via email to elsa.aguon.civ@army.mil. Please reference (Questions, ERMA23) in the email’s subject line.

6. If your firm has the potential capacity to provide the requested services under the PWS, please provide the following information:

a. Business name, address, email address, web site address, telephone number, Tax Identification Number (TIN), DUNS number, CAGE code, business size, identification of small business socioeconomic status (ie., SDB, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB, etc.)

b. Response shall not exceed 7 pages, be single-spaced, 12 font size at a minimum and be submitted in Microsoft Word or searchable PDF and be saved as (Company Name, Capabilities, ERMA23). A generic capability statement is not acceptable and additional information regarding the contractor’s capabilities shall not be included in the body of the email but must be provided within the 7 page response. Bulleted responses are acceptable. In their capabilities statement/response the contractors shall provide the following:

(i) A discussion of your capabilities to fully perform the following: 1) characterize or determine the nature and extent of potential environmental contamination, 2) develop feasible or proposed approaches to the restoration of water and/or soils, 3) design, build, and operate environmental restoration treatment systems, 4) conduct environmental sampling and provide environmental monitoring services, 5) perform military munitions response activities, 6) prepare reports and 7) successfully negotiate with and obtain approval from applicable stakeholders on all phases of the environmental restoration process; 8) perform remediation required for sites involving hazardous/toxic waste including per-and polyfluoroalkyl substance and perfluorooctanoic. This work will be conducted primarily under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) although some state and local regulations and DoD Directives may also apply.

(ii) Provide a brief outline of past performance/previous experience (within the past 5 years) to include dollar value, Contracting Organization, Contract number, prime or subcontract designation, complexity, timeframe, and if work was commercial or non-commercial. Past performance/previous experience shall address the following:

· Experience working with Federal cleanup programs (particularly DoD) associated with the restoration of ground and surface water, the handling and disposition of hazardous, toxic and radioactive waste (HTRW), the detection and remediation of munitions and explosives of concern (MEC), the ability to address commingled MEC, Munitions Constituents (MC), and HTRW during all phases of the CERCLA and RCRA processes, and experience in achieving site closeout with appropriate Federal, state and local environmental cleanup requirements under a fixed price contractual arrangement.

· Corporate experience managing performance-based acquisitions;

· Corporate experience conducting and overseeing all aspects of technical and administrative work described above, on contracts that exceed $5 million in value;

· Corporate experience integrating multiple subcontractors in meeting performance objectives; and

· Demonstrated experience working on large, active federal installations.

(iii) (Applicable to Small Businesses) Discuss what percentage of work will be performed by the small business prime contractor and all similarly situated entity subcontractors. Note: All socio-economic set-aside include a clause similar to FAR 52.219-14 Limitations on Subcontracting:

“Similarly situated entity” means a first-tier subcontractor, including an independent contractor, that has the same small business program status as that which qualified the prime contractor for the award and that is considered small for the NAICS code the prime contractor assigned to the subcontract the subcontractor will perform. An example of a similarly situated entity is a first-tier subcontractor that is a HUBZone small business concern for a HUBZone set-aside.

In addition, the contractor shall also agree that it will not pay more than 50 percent of the amount paid by the Government for contract performance to subcontractors that are not similarly situated entities.

All WOSB firms need to take action in beta.certify.sba.gov in order to compete for WOSB Federal Contracting Program set-aside contracts.

7. Identify any condition or action that may be having the effect of unnecessarily restricting competition with respect to this acquisition. Please contact the MICC Advocate for Competition, Scott Kukes, at scott.d.kukes.civ@mail.mil or 210-466-3015, if you believe that this action is unreasonably restricting competition. Include the subject of the acquisition, this announcement, and the MICC POC information from the beta.SAM notice. Provide the specific aspects that unreasonably restricting competition and the rationale for such conclusion.

8. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions. Please send responses no later than 29 November 2021 by 4:00 PM CT, with the subject heading (SS Response, ERMA23) to contracting specialist Elsa Aguon at elsa.aguon.civ@army.mil