Scalable Wastewater Surveillance for Routine and Emerging Infectious Disease Pathogens

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seeks to establish scalable wastewater surveillance services for routine and emerging infectious disease pathogens through an unrestricted small-business IDIQ contract, with proposals due September 2 and questions due August 19.

The contract carries a maximum value of $145 million over 60 months (September 15, 2026 through September 14, 2031) with a $10,000 minimum guarantee. Place of performance is Atlanta, Georgia, with all testing conducted by a single laboratory in the continental United States. The contractor must establish service relationships with up to 500 public wastewater treatment facilities across the U.S., territories, and tribal lands.

Core deliverables include droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) testing for up to 25 infectious disease pathogen targets on up to 166,240 samples annually, with results submitted to CDC within 36 hours of receipt; targeted amplicon sequencing and metagenomic sequencing (up to one billion reads from 100 samples weekly) on designated samples; and twice-weekly sample collection and shipment from participating facilities. The contractor must maintain National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) data dictionary compliance and API connectivity, retain sample remainders for CDC archiving, and comply with comprehensive information security safeguards including encrypted storage and transmission, Privacy Act requirements, and non-disclosure agreements. All samples, derivatives, and data become sole CDC property with unlimited CDC rights.

NAICS code is 541380 (Testing Laboratories), with a $19 million size standard. Solicitation number is 75D301-26-R-73493. Award uses best-value tradeoff: technical approach, staffing approach, management approach, similar experience, and past performance are significantly more important than price. If contractors use AI, they must submit an AI Use Compliance and Risk Management Plan; AI cannot be used in data analysis and interpretation.