Specifications_Macroinvertebrate_(Genus).pdf

Macroinvertebrate to Genus

Multi-Award Event Specifications

ITB 34301-13664

The Tennessee Department of Health Division of Laboratory Services (TDH-DLS) is seeking a multi-year contract of three (3) years + two (2) one-year (1-year) renewal options for a total of sixty (60) months for Macroinvertebrate Genus Level Analysis. This contract is for analytical services to be performed for genus level biota found in water samples collected from sources within the state of Tennessee.

A. Definitions

1. Arthropods: a diverse group of invertebrate animals that include lobsters, crabs, spiders, mites, insects, centipedes, and millipedes. They have a segmented body, jointed limbs, and a chitinous shell. Arthropods make up about 75% of all animals on Earth and play important roles in ecosystems as pollinators, nutrient recyclers, scavengers, and food for other animals.

2. Chain of Custody: The chronological documentation or paper trail that records the sequence of custody, control transfer analysis, and disposition of materials, including physical or electronic evidence.

3. Chironomidae: a group of non-biting midges (flies) and bloodworms with a global distribution, both aquatic larvae and pupae are identified.

4. Clean Water Act: The primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution.

5. Central Time (CT): a standard time zone that is six hours behind Coordinated Universal

Time. It is used in parts of North and South America, including Canada, the United States, and Mexico, as well as some areas in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean islands.

6. Culicidae: family of small flies consisting of 3,600 species. AKA, mosquitoes.

7. Division of Laboratory Services (DLS): Provides high quality analytical services of medical and environmental testing and to achieve the Mission of the Tennessee State Department of Health.

8. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. The role of the agency is to conduct environmental assessments, research, and education. An additional role of the agency is to maintain and enforce national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments.

9. Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera (EPT): three orders of aquatic insects commonly found in the benthic macroinvertebrate community. Commonly known as mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies.

10. Genus: A principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family and is denoted by a capitalized Latin name.

11. Gerridae: family of insects in the order Hemiptera, commonly known as water striders, water skeeters, water scooters, water bugs, pond skaters, water skippers, water gliders, water skimmers or puddle flies.

12. Gyrinidae: Water beetles, comprising the family Gyrinidae that usually swim on the surface of the water if undisturbed, though they swim underwater when threatened.

13. Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS): software that manages laboratory samples and the associated data, thus standardizing operations by maintaining and automating workflows, managing tests, and handling reporting procedures.

14. Macroinvertebrate: any animal lacking a backbone and large enough to see without the aid of a microscope.

15. Measured Quality Objective (MQO): goals related to the value of products, services and processes. These come from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) quality management systems, which is a set of guidelines to help organizations meet their customers' needs and requirements.

16. Oligochaeta: a subclass of soft-bodied animals in the phylum Annelida

17. Percent Difference in Enumeration (PDE): quantifies the consistency of specimen counts in samples and is determined by calculating a comparison of results from two (2) independent laboratories or taxonomists.

18. Percent Taxonomic Disagreement (PTD): quantifies the sample-based precision of taxonomic identifications by comparing target level taxonomic results from two independent taxonomists.

19. Percent Taxonomic Completeness (PTC): the percentage of individuals in a sample that are identified to the specified target level.

20. Proposal: a Vendor’s written response to ITB 34301-13364.

21. Quality Assurance: Any systematic process used to determine if a product or service meet quality standards.

22. Quality Control (QC): a system of maintaining standards in manufactured products or services by testing a sample of the output against the specification.

23. Semi Quantitative Single Habitat Macroinvertebrates (SQSH): sampling technique designed to collect a representative macroinvertebrate sample in streams/creeks/rivers.

24. Semi Quantitative Single Habitat Macroinvertebrates bank (SQB): sampling technique designed to collect a representative macroinvertebrate sample in streams/creek/rivers from areas of roots along banks.

25. Semi Quantitative Single Habitat Macroinvertebrates kick (SQK): sampling technique designed to collect a representative macroinvertebrate sample in streams/creek/rivers from riffle areas.

26. Society of Freshwater Science: an international organization whose members study freshwater organisms, biotic communities, physical processes that affect ecosystem function, linkages between freshwater ecosystems and surrounding landscapes, habitat and water quality assessment, conservation, and restoration.

27. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP): a set of written instructions that outline the steps required to complete a task or process in a consistent way.

28. Taxon: A collection of one (1) or more populations of organisms.

29. Taxonomic Certification: documented knowledge and skill in specialized areas of taxonomy.

30. Tennessee Department of Health (TDH): the primary agency of state government in

Tennessee responsible for public health. Its workforce provides a variety of direct and indirect services to residents and visitors in all 95 counties of the state.

31. Veliidae: family of gregarious predatory insects in the suborder Heteroptera. They are commonly known as riffle bugs, small water striders, or broad-shouldered water striders because the segment immediately. behind the head is wider than the rest of the abdomen.

32. Vendor: a person or legal entity with the legal capacity to enter into contracts and sue and be sued who submits a Proposal in response to ITB 34301-13364 and, after award, any such person or legal entity awarded a contract under ITB 34301-13364.

B. Standard Requirements

1. Vendor shall limit staff to US-based (onshore) resources only.

2. No sample requests from the Tennessee Department of Health Division of Laboratory

Services (TDH-DLS) shall be subcontracted.

a. If, at any point, the Vendor is unable to meet the sample analysis requirements set forth in the contract, the Vendor shall communicate this fact to the TDH-DLS within one (1) week via email.

C. Minimum requirements (Macro to Genus):

1. The Vendor(s) shall (1) identify up to one thousand five hundred ninety-three (1593) semi-quantitative single habitat macroinvertebrate samples at the Genus Level and

(2) execute three hundred twenty (320) Quality control checks (10% sorting QC, 10% taxonomic QC.)

a. These numbers represent the maximum number of samples to be identified over the initial three (3) years of the contract.

b. These samples may include semi-quantitative single habitat kicks (SQK) and banks (SQB).

2. The Vendor shall identify for genus level a subsample of two hundred (200) +/- twenty percent (20%) (i.e., one hundred sixty to two hundred forty (160 to 240)) organisms following TDH-Lab SOP 133336.10052 Macroinvertebrate.

3. Vendor(s) shall maintain a copy of the chain of custody for all samples. Vendor(s) agree that any provided sample data is subject to legal review.

4. Vendor(s) shall identify each organism in subsample to the genus level.

5. The Vendor(s) shall submit a taxa list for each sample that must include the count of each taxon per subsample and header information.

a. Some genera are no longer accepted as aquatic (such as those in Gyrinidae, Gerridae, Veliidae, and Culicidae).

6. Vendor(s) shall sort subsample organisms from debris using a dissecting microscope.

7. Vendor(s) shall record the total number of grids subsampled to include with the submission of taxa list.

8. The Vendor(s) shall ensure that the following information is included in header:

a. TDH log number;

b. Station ID;

c. Sample type;

d. Sampler initials;

e. Date sampled; and

f. Analyst’s name or initials.

9. The Vendor(s) shall ensure that the taxonomic staff and/or supervisor will be available via email, phone or in-person visits during standard business hours 7:00 AM

– 5:00 PM CT Monday through Friday for resolutions as needed.

10. The Vendor(s) shall ensure that at least one (1) staff member of the contracted laboratory has the taxonomic certification in the EPT, chironomids, and general arthropods from the Society of Freshwater Science and provide this documentation.

11. The Vendor(s) shall ensure that all Oligochaeta and Chironomidae found in the sort must be identified to genus.

12. Vendor(s) shall not subsample any organisms including chironomids and oligochaetes further.

13. Vendor(s) shall identify each organism in the one hundred sixty to two hundred forty

(160-240) organism subsample.

14. The Vendor(s) shall be responsible for timely returning, at its expense, all samples to the TDH-DLS.

15. Samples shall be labeled with:

a. Station ID;

b. Date of collection;

c. Sampler’s initials;

d. TDH log number; and

e. Analysts’ initials.

f. All remaining sample debris, sorted debris, and organisms identified in sample (to include slides and non-mounted organisms) shall also be labeled as provided above.

D. Quality Assurance

1. Ten percent of all randomly selected samples shall be QC’d. A Percent Difference in

Enumeration (PDE), Percent Taxonomic Disagreement (PTD), and Percent Taxonomic completeness (PTC) shall be completed for all QC’d samples (adopted from the Society of Freshwater Science).

2. Quality control logs must be submitted with each batch of sample results. The score must be listed in the log submitted for each sample/analyst.

3. A list of organisms must also be submitted including all corrections after consensus.

4. All samples must be completed in the order prescribed by the TDH-DLS.

E. Special Instructions

1. Results shall be completed in the form of Excel taxa lists.

2. Copies of the original bench sheets, and results completed in the form of Excel taxa list shall be emailed to: Carrie.Perry@TN.Gov

3. All identified organisms shall be boxed by the Vendor and sent back to the TDH - DLS at the address provided in Specification F.1.

4. Vendor shall be responsible for all shipping and handling charges incurred.

5. TDH - DLS Samples are preserved using ethanol, which is a class 3 flammable liquid.

6. Vendor shall report sample results within sixty (60) calendar days of receipt of sample.

F. Location & Contact:

1. All shipments shall be sent to:

Carrie Perry, Aquatic Biology Manager Tennessee Department of Health, Division of Laboratory Services 630 Hart Lane Nashville, TN 37216.

Carrie.Perry@TN.Gov

G. Contract Award and Administration Details:

1. The Tennessee Department of Health (DOH) estimates results will be needed for five hundred thirty-one (531) samples per year (“estimated annual quantity”).

2. This will be a multi-award Contract with a maximum of eight (8) awarded Contracts.

a. “Vendor A” shall be the Vendor who submits the lowest-cost responsive

Proposal, “Vendor B” shall be the Vendor who proposes the second lowest cost, “Vendor C” shall be the Vendor who proposes the third lowest cost, etc.

3. When a batch of samples is ready to be distributed for testing, DOH will first contact Vendor A to request the quantity of samples Vendor A is able to fulfil from the batch. Vendor A will receive the entire quantity of samples it is able to fulfil. If Vendor A is unable to fulfill the entire quantity of samples in the batch, then Vendor B will be contacted to request the quantity of samples that Vendor B is able to fulfill from the remaining number of samples in the batch. Vendor B will then receive the quantity of samples it is able to fulfil from the remaining samples in the batch. This process will continue until, in the aggregate, the entire proposed quantity from the batch is fulfilled.

mailto:Carrie.Perry@TN.Gov mailto:Carrie.Perry@TN.Gov

4. Each contractor shall report the sample results within sixty (60) calendar days of receiving the samples.