Technical Support for Implementation of the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW), Technical Support Center requires contractor support to provide technical, analytical, and administrative support services for the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation (UCMR). The purpose of this acquisition is to establish an on-going contracting mechanism in OGWDW to support the Standards and Risk Management Division (SRMD) with, both, specific programmatic needs and evolving Agency policies and programs. The resulting contract may be used, with OGWDW’s permission, by related organizations in the Office of Water (OW) and other parts of EPA when those organizations require technical support within the scope of this Performance Work Statement (PWS).

The EPA, OW is responsible for implementing the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) section 1445(a)(2), “Monitoring Program for Unregulated Contaminants.” This section, as amended in 1996, requires that once every five years, EPA issue a new list of no more than 30 unregulated contaminants to be monitored by public water systems (PWSs). This Unregulated Monitoring Rule (UCMR) requires public water systems to collect occurrence data for contaminants that may be present in drinking water but are not yet subject to EPA’s drinking water standards set under SDWA. This rule benefits public health by providing EPA and other interested parties with scientifically valid data on the national occurrence of selected contaminants in drinking water. This dataset is one of the primary sources of information on occurrence, levels of exposure, and population exposure the Agency uses to develop regulatory decisions for contaminants in the public drinking water supply.

SDWA requires that EPA (1) have direct implementation responsibilities (with state assistance through Partnership Agreements) (2) enter the monitoring data into the Agency's publically available National Contaminant Occurrence Database and (3) ensure that systems serving a population larger than 10,000 people, as well as a nationally representative sample of public water systems serving 10,000 or fewer people, are monitored. EPA must also vary the frequency and schedule for monitoring based on the number of persons served, the source of supply, and the contaminants likely to be found.

The final UCMR 5 (https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/fifth-unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule) identifies three analytical methods to support water system monitoring for a total of 30 chemical contaminants, consisting of twenty-nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and one metal (lithium).

The proposed contract will have a five-year ordering period. Total maximum level of effort for this five-year period of performance is anticipated to be 185,000 direct labor hours. It is anticipated that an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with cost plus fixed-fee/level-of-effort task orders will result from the solicitation of this requirement. This is a follow-on-requirement of the current EPA contract, EP-C-17-040, with Great Lakes Environmental Consultants.

Potential exists for an organizational Conflict of Interest (COI) under any resulting procurement. Final COI documents will be provided in the solicitation.

The anticipated solicitation release date is early Jan 2022, and the close date shall be approximately 30 days thereafter. The solicitation will be issued on a small business set-aside basis. As a reminder, small businesses are required to perform at least 50 percent of the costs of the contract performance with their own personnel (See FAR 52.219-14) under a procurement set aside for small businesses.

The applicable NAICS code for this requirement is 541620, with a size standard of $16.5 million. Any future solicitation will be made in accordance with FAR Part 15: Contracting by Negotiation. The point of contact is Brad Werwick, at (513)487-2018, werwick.brad@epa.gov .

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