This special notice is in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 5.2, Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Acquisition Operations Branch, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), on the behalf of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), has the requirements as follows: "A Risk Assessment Framework to Assess the Biological Significance of Noise on Marine Mammals." Therefore, BSEE is the contracting office for this special notice. The purpose of this special notice is to announce the Government's intent to negotiate with and award a firm-fixed-price type of contract on a sole source basis to the contractor, Southall Environmental Associates Incorporated (SEA), in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 15 - Contracting by Negotiation and the FAR Subpart 6.302 - Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The BOEM is seeking SEA's support to implement risk assessment analytical framework to enable increasingly realistic and meaningful quantification and interpretation of potential of acute and chronic acoustic effects to marine mammals from the noise produced by the seismic surveys conducted in support of oil and gas exploration and development in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and the construction of renewable energy platforms (e.g., windfarms) in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean. The geophysical activities used for the original framework consist of the acute potential acoustic impacts as modeled for the Gulf of Mexico Geological and Geophysical (G&G) Activities Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The PEIS is currently awaiting final approval, and the supporting acoustic modeling results, covering ten years of predictive modeling, all marine mammal species present in the in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the GOM, and six survey configurations, are available. The modeling also included a preliminary investigation into the chronic effects produced by the G&G activities. The renewable energy effort is for a hypothetical windfarm off the New England coast and is intended to refine the risk assessment techniques for similar pile driving construction activities throughout the United States' Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The BOEM desires to use the risk assessment analytical framework that already exist and that was developed under BSEE Sole Source Awarded Contract M17PC00002. Therefore, any necessary modifications or expansions made to the existing framework must be completed by the same contractor, SEA, that completed BSEE Sole Source Awarded Contract M17PC00002. SEA successfully completed tasks, on behalf of BOEM for the first study, under BSEE Sole Source Awarded Contract M17PC00002. The existing baseline framework developed from the first study, under Contract M17PC00002, is the only study available that is capable of being used to produce the analysis and desired results from a second study and under a follow-on contract. Therefore, BOEM needs SEA to complete a follow-on contract and tasks for a second study entitled "A Risk Assessment Framework to Assess the Biological Significance of Noise on Marine Mammals." SEA is the only capable and responsible source to meet the requirements for a second study and follow-on contract. Thus, this Special Notice of Intent to Sole Source hereby provides public notice of: 1) the Government's intent to solicit and negotiate on a sole source basis with the single known capable and responsible contractor, SEA, determined to be solely capable to meet the Government¿s requirements; and, 2) the Government's intent to award a contract on a sole source basis to SEA. The Government anticipates that a contract will be awarded approximate to April 2020 with an 18-month period of performance from the date of award. The applicable NAICS Code is 541690. This is NOT a request for competitive proposals, quotations nor bids. This is a special notice of intent to sole source that is for informational purposes only. Nonetheless, any responsible source/interested party may submit a response/capabilities statement of its capabilities to meet the requirements. A response/capabilities statement will be considered by the Government to vet purported capabilities if received in the e-mail inbox of Mario Gray, e-mail address:
[email protected], by 2/7/2020 (reference Special Notice Number 140M0120R0004). A determination by the Government not to compete the Government's requirements described herein based on this special notice and any response hereto is solely within the discretion of the Government.