The US Geological Survey (USGS) is seeking the acid precipitation monitoring services for monitoring site NM08 in the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, National Trends Network (NADP-NTN) located in Otero County near Mayhill, New Mexico. The land is owned by the USDA, National Forest Service, and Lincoln National Forest. This will allow for operation of a NADP-NTN wet atmospheric monitoring station. Operation requires weekly site visits to the site to collect, process, and ship the precipitation sample, collect, process and transmit associated data with the site including the precipitation gage record and perform routine instrument checks, maintenance and repairs as needed. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Water Mission Area, Office of Water Quality requires the operation of these sites in order to support the NADP-NTN. The USGS is the designated lead agency for the monitoring of atmospheric deposition and NADP is the operational organization through which the USGS and other participating organizations accomplish this national-scale monitoring in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. The USGS is aware of no other source that can provide the above. Therefore, it intends to make an award to Linda Madron, unless it is contacted by any vendor who believes they have obtained similar technical expertise and can provide the same service. Vendors are invited to contact the Contract Specialist, Nicole Demby (
[email protected]) no later than 2:00PM EST, Monday, December 10, 2018 with an affirmative answer. SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION STATES THE FOLLOWING PART: The following information is provided to demonstrate the proposed contractor's unique qualifications: Linda Madron is uniquely qualified to continue to provide this service due to her experience, knowledge, and expertise to complete the requirements without training or time spent in learning how to operate the equipment. Since 2008, the USGS has utilized the expertise and monitoring abilities of Linda Madron to ensure the uniform, high-quality data that NTN seeks, minimizing the possibility that data will be invalidated and costing the Government unnecessary expenditures due to poor sampling procedures. Furthermore, Linda Madron is credentialed with the USDA-Forest Service under Administrative Detail (WAE) with the Lincoln National Forest to support the USFS for seasonal fire-fighting duties specifically associated with supporting the fire-fighting personnel support area located adjacent to the Mayhill NADP-NTN site. In this role, Ms. Madron has permission to access the site on the National Forest where the NTN site NM08 is located. This is a fenced and restricted area due to site security measures against vandalism and because the water well and pumping equipment that supplies fresh drinking water to the adjacent fire-fighting personnel support area is directly collocated with the NTN NM08 monitoring equipment. Therefore, the USDA-FS does not allow third-party vendors or others to operate this site or have access to the land, site or equipment in this location. Where a USGS-supported site can be potentially operated by any number of interested individuals or organizations, we offer those site duties via a competitive process. This document describes the situation where we have a site that cannot be competed due to the site's location adjacent to the fire-fighting personnel support area for the USDA-Forest Service and collocated with the water well and pumping equipment that supplies drinking water to this fire-fighter support area. As detailed in the section above, Ms. Madron is credentialed to support this support area under an Administrative Detail (WAE) and thus has access to the secured area where the NADP-NTN site NM08 and drinking water supply well is located. No other source is known qualified to complete the requirement and will be allowed access rights to this secured and sensitive area. Although these cooperative sites have typically been operated for many years often by the same organization or individual, when and if the opportunity arises to either relocate the site or have the operation of the site turned over to another organization, the USGS has and will in the future use a competitive process to select a new site operation partner.