SOURCES SOUGHT TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION FOR SERVICES

INTRODUCTION

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District is issuing this sources sought synopsis as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to provide, operate, and maintain a Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), provide opearation and maintenance services of that WWTP, and treat a combination of dredged water, groundwater, and precipitation at the Indiana Harbor and Canal Confined Disposal Facility for dredged material. The intention is to procure these services on a competitive basis, either by purchase of a system, or through short or long term leasing arrangements.

BASED ON THE RESPONSES TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE/MARKET RESEARCH, THIS REQUIREMENT MAY BE SET-ASIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES (IN FULL OR IN PART) OR PROCURED THROUGH FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION, and multiple awards MAY be made. All Small Business Set-Aside categories will be considered. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions.

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE: 3500 Indianapolis Boulevard, East Chicago, IN 46312

To coordinate a site visit, please contact the point of contact identified below

DISCLAIMER

¡°THIS SOURCES SOUGHT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A ¡°REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)¡± TO BE SUBMITTED. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION AND SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. RESPONSES IN ANY FORM ARE NOT OFFERS AND THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR PREPARATION OF RESPONSES TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THIS TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY. RESPPONSES WILL NOT BE RETURNED TO THE RESPONDER. NOT RESPONDING TO THIS NOTICE DOES NOT PRECLUDE PARTICIPATION IN ANY FUTURE REQUEST FOR QUOTE (RFQ) OR INVITATION FOR BID (IFB) OR RFP, IF ANY ISSUED. IF A SOLICITATION IS RELEASED, IT WILL BE SYNOPSIZED ON THE GOVERNMENT-WIDE POINT OF ENTRY (GPE). IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF POTENTIAL OFFERORS TO MONITOR THE GPE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMMATION PERTAINING TO THIS REQUIREMENT.¡±

PROGRAM BACKGROUND

The Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) stores contaminated dredged sediment from the Indiana Harbor & Canal (IHC). The site is approximately 140 acres and includes a diked area which holds dredged material and surrounding supporting facilities. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) periodically dredges the IHC and places the dredge material into the CDF. The IHC CDF diked area includes a 20-ft wide center dike separating a 50-acre west pond and a 45-acre east pond. The CDF exterior dike height ranges from 27 to 31 feet above the adjacent surface grade. The CDF maintains an average minimum water depth of 2-ft above the sediment. The CDF water (referred to as CDF pond water) is a combination of dredge water, groundwater extracted from the site and discharged to the CDF, and precipitation that falls within the diked area.

REQUIRED CAPABILITIES

The Contractor will be responsible for providing all personnel, supervision, equipment, supplies, tools, materials, and other items necessary to perform the services described herein. The contractor shall mobilize and demobilize a mobile WWTP for treatment of IHC CDF pond water over the period of performance, if leasing, or install if acquiring. The contractor will be responsible for operating and maintaining the WWTP. The contractor will be responsible for determining the size and features of the WWTP to meet all requirements of the IHC CDF site National Pollutant Discharge Eliination System (NPDES) permit. The primary contaminants in the water to be treated are: Total Suspended Solids, PAHs, PCBs, BTEX, metals including low level mercury, ammonia, oil & grease. Whole Effluent Toxicity testing of the treated water is also required by the NPDES permit. The volume of water to be treated by the WWTP will vary, with an expected range of 30 to 50 million gallons per year. The WWTP must be flexibile to treat anticipated fluctuations in volume to be treated. The Contractor will be responsible for operating the WWTP on a seasonal, as-needed basis, with the plant anticipated to operate a few months a year, and potentially not operating some years. Intermittent treatment is desirable to allow time for dredging and disposal of dredged material into the CDF (to be performed by others). Further detail is provided in the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) attached to this announcement (Attachment 1).

General Submissions. If your organization has the potential capacity to perform these contract services, please provide the following information:

1. Organization name, address, email address, Web site address, telephone number, and size and type of ownership for the organization;


2. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements. Please note that under a Small-Business Set-Aside, in accordance with FAR 52.219-14, the small business prime must perform at least 50% of the work themselves in terms of the cost of performance. Provide an explanation of your company¡¯s ability to perform at least 50% of the tasking described in this PWS for the base period as well as the option periods.

1. Provide a statement including current small/large business status and company profile to include number of employees, annual revenue history, office locations, Unique Entity Identification (UEI), etc.Respondents to this notice also must indicate whether they qualify as a Small, Small Disadvantaged, Women-Owned, HUBZone, or Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concern.

The Government will evaluate market information to ascertain potential market capacity to: 1) provide services consistent, in scope and scale, with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated; 2) secure and apply the full range of corporate financial, human capital, and technical resources required to successfully perform similar requirements; 3) implement a successful project management plan that includes: compliance with tight program schedules; cost containment; meeting and tracking performance; hiring and retention of key personnel and risk mitigation; 4) provide services under a performance based service acquisition contract, and 5) either purchase or lease a WWTP system.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: State of Indiana Licenses for an Operator .

ELIGIBILITY

The applicable NAICS code for this requirement is 221310, ¡°Water Supply and Irrigation System¡± with a Small Business Size Standard of $41 Million. The Product Service Code is Z1NE Maintenance of Water Supply Facilities. Businesses of all sizes are encouraged to respond; however, each respondent must clearly identify their business size in their capabilities statement.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND SUBMISSION DETAILS (SITE VISIT)

The Requiring Activity does not intend to hold a general site visit, but will hold individual ones based upon requests. Vendors are responsible for ensuring they wear proper safety attire if attending a site visit. A site visit is not a requirement and in no way will it have any effect on any company from submitting a response to this Sources Sought notice and/or a proposal in response to any forthcoming solicitation.

To coordinate a site visit, send an email to Daien Allen, at damian.g.allen@usace.army.mil by noon CST on 5 April 2024. The email must provide the business name, address, attendee name(s), a point of contact phone number and email address. The subject line of the email should read ¡°Wastewater Treamtment Site Visit¡±. All attendees must provide proof of U.S. Citizenship.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND SUBMISSION DETAILS (CAPABILITIES STATEMENT)

A draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) and related documents are attached for review. (Attachment 1). The Government invites vendors to submit feeback on those attachments.

Interested parties are requested to submit a capabilities statement of no more than ten (10) pages in length in Times New Roman font of not less than 10 pitch. The deadline for response to this request is no later than 2 pm, CT, 11 April 2024. All responses under this Sources Sought Notice must be e-mailed to the Contract Specailist, Sara.T.King@usace.army.mil.

This technical documentation must address at a minimum the following items:

1. What type of work has your company performed in the past in support of the same or similar requirement?


2. Can or has your company managed a task of this nature? If so, please provide details.


3. What specific technical skills does your company possess which ensure capability to perform the tasks? These details should include tailored capability statements addressing the particulars of this effort, with appropriate documentation supporting claims of organizational and staff capability.


4. What type of related leasing arrangements and purchase options does your firm offer?


5. In considering the financial and operating advantages, and the expected treatment volume (30 to 50 Mgal/year) and intermittent treatment schedule, what treatment plant size/flowrate would the contractor propose and why? What would be the approximate costs for that plant?


6. If there is a price difference for treatment if 8 Mgal/month and 15-20 Mgal/month, please describe.


7. What is the expected time for setting up the mobile treatment plant and having the plant ready for treatment? Or for installing a purchased modular treatment plant? What would be the approximate costs for that?


8. Will the plant have the capability to demobilize between treatment periods if the time between treatment periods is 6 months? If the time between treatment periods is more than 12 months? If so, what would be the approximate costs for that?


9. What is the expected life-cycle of the of the plant?


10. What abilities exist for swapping, upgrading, or exchanging equipment?

The WWTP work at the site is ongoing.

The contract type is anticipated to be a Firm-fixed price contract.

The proposed contract is anticipated to include tasking that would be accomplished by labor categories that are subject to the Service Contract Act.

Upon evaluation of the capability statements, if it is determined that this requirement will be an unrestricted competition, the Government intends to evaluate the Small-Business responses and conduct further market research to identify a subcontracting goal.

Your response to this Sources Sought, including any capabilities statement, shall be electronically submitted to the Contract Specialist, Sara King, in either Microsoft Word or Portable Document Format (PDF), via email Sara.t.king@usace.army.mil.

All data received in response to this Sources Sought that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary will be fully protected from any release outside the Government.

No phone calls will be accepted.

All questions must be submitted to the contract specialist identified above. The Government is not committed nor obligated to pay for the information provided, and no basis for claims against the Government shall arise as a result of a response to this Sources Sought.