R--Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (AEGL) Program Support

This is a sources sought notice for written information only. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this notice and will not reimburse the costs incurred by potential offerors in providing the information requested herein. In preparation for an upcoming procurement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency?s (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) is conducting market research to determine potential sources for technical services to the Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (AEGL) Program. This work is currently being done through an Inter-Agency Agreement (IAG) with Department of Energy by the Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). This market research will help determine if this work can be done by domestic private industry as FFRDC's are not to be placed in direct competition with domestic private industry. AEGL values are developed as a critical component to emergency planning and response needs in the event of an accidental or terrorist release of a chemical. They are inhalation acute exposure values for detection, disability, and death for five exposure durations between 10 minutes and 8 hours. The work will comprise preparation of AEGL Technical Support Documents (detailed documentation for the derivation of AEGL values); presentation to the National Advisory Committee for Acute Exposure Guideline Levels Committee (NAC/AEGL); presentation to the National Academies (NAS); response to comments from the public, NAC/AEGL Committee, and NAS; database development and analysis; and meeting support for the AEGL Program. Detailed information on the requirement is provided via a draft copy of the Statement of Work (SOW), and web-links to Standing Operating Procedures utilized by the AEGL Program, and three sample Technical Support Documents (see below). Specific areas to be addressed in capability packages are as follow: (1) Documented experience in developing and revising inhalation comprehensive risk assessment documents on the level of complexity of the Technical Support Documents (TSDs) referenced below; (2) Sufficient numbers of high level scientific staff to perform the work specified in the Draft SOW. The proposed scientific and technical authors shall be recognized nationally with demonstrated knowledge, expertise and experience in assessing inhalation toxicity experiments and creating a risk assessment profile on a chemical which integrates all toxicology information about the chemical and derives appropriate values to the task; (3) Sophisticated literature research and retrieval capability as specified in the AEGL SOP Section 2.3 referenced below "Guidelines and criteria for the search strategy, evaluation, selection, and documentation of key data and supporting data used for the derivation of AEGL values."; (4) Experience developing and documenting innovative human health risk assessment methodologies/procedures or the refinement and improvement of existing ones; (5) Documented experience presenting complex chemical risk assessments to expert panels in an effective manner. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541712 "Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)" with a size standard of $6.5 million. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR TECHNICAL OR COST PROPOSALS. This is a request for interested potential offerors to submit a brief capability statement demonstrating how they plan to meet the requirements in the draft Statement of Work (SOW). Submissions shall be limited to no more than ten (10) pages. Standard brochures and paraphrasing of the SOW will not be considered a sufficient response to this notice. Submitted capability statements should include the following: (1) Name of vendor; (2) Contact information (address, telephone, facsimile, e-mail); and (3) Technical description of capabilities in meeting the requirement. Businesses should submit an electronic copy of the requested information to the contracting officer, Robert M. Minjack, at minjack.robert@epa by 12 March 2008. No feedback will be provided regarding individual capabilities statements. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement and/or any follow-up information requests. No telephone calls and/or requests for a solicitation will be accepted or acknowledged. --- Draft Statement of Work, Posted in Word and Adobe Acrobat PDF format http://www.epa.gov/oamhpod1/oppts_grp/0811013/index.htm -- Standing Operating Procedures (AEGL SOP) http://www.epa.gov/oppt/aegl/pubs/sop.htm --- Technical Support Document for hydrogen chloride http://www.epa.gov/oppt/aegl/pubs/tsd52.pdf --- Technical Support Document for hydrogen cyanide http://www.epa.gov/oppt/aegl/pubs/tsd6.pdf --- Technical Support Document for aniline http://www.epa.gov/oppt/aegl/pubs/tsd5.pdf