SOLICITATION NOTICE
10 -- Develop a web base training of Federal Regulations of Underground Storage Tanks
- Notice Date
- 6/11/2008
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- Contracting Office
- Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Acquisition Management, EPA/Headquarters, Environmental Protection Agency, Headquarters Procurement Operations Division, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Nw, Washington, DC 20460
- ZIP Code
- 20460
- Solicitation Number
- RFQ-DC-08-00192
- Response Due
- 6/20/2008
- Archive Date
- 7/20/2008
- Point of Contact
- Point of Contact, Sheila Fagan, Purchasing Agent, Phone (202) 564-4517
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NAICS Code: 541620 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Federal Facilities Enforcement Office (FFEO) intends to award fixed-price performance based purchase order under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures toprovide electronic, web-based training relating to underground storage tank federal regulations. Notwithstanding, any firm that believes it is capable of meeting EPA's requirement as stated herein may submit a capabilities statement, which if received by the response date of this announcement may be considered. A determination not to compete the proposed purchase order based upon the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. All inquiries and concerns must be addressed in writing and fax to US EPA, Attn: Sheila Fagan (202)565-2554, or sent by email to fagan.sheila@epa.gov. Responses to this notice must be submitted in writing after this electronic posting and prior to June 20, 2008 noon. Please include your name, point of contact, address, area code and telephone number, facsimile number and DUNS number. Telephone requests or inquiries will not be accepted. Statement of ObjectivesUST Web ?Based Training And Enforcement Compendium Presentation Purpose: The purpose of this solicitation is to acquire electronic, web-based training to ensure federal facility and EPA agency personnel have the knowledge and understanding to achieve and maintain compliance with federal underground storage tank (UST) regulations. Scope: The goal of this effort is to effectively convey UST training and enforcement materials, in an electronic format available on the internet at the FedCenter website. The training must address federal regulatory compliance at federal facilities across the nation and provide an understanding of management techniques that will facilitate regulatory compliance for owners, operators and managers of federal USTs. The training is not to be designed to address state UST regulatory requirements. In a separate but closely related effort, existing enforcement materials for EPA personnel contained in the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Enforcement Compendium (see /www.fedcenter.gov ? EPA Enforcement Focus ? UST) should be presented in a user-friendly, web-based format. Period of Performance: Date of award to December 30, 2008 Background: The Federal Facilities Enforcement Office (FFEO) is EPA's front-line office for ensuring that Federal agencies and facilities take all necessary actions to prevent, control, and abate environmental pollution. FFEO takes an active role in providing compliance assistance to the Federal sector, including agencies, bureaus, services, commands and field-level facilities. FFEO also reviews available information to identify Federal sector deficiencies in applying regulatory and Executive Order compliance requirements to activities at Federal facilities. The development of methods and techniques to resolve environmental regulatory compliance deficiencies and the transfer of that information to other agencies and facilities is key to assuring a strong environmental compliance program throughout the federal community and meeting FFEO's mission. EPA's Federal facility program headquarters and regional offices focus their work on several important areas where Federal agencies appear to have poor compliance records and where poor environmental management practices will lead to non compliance and have detrimental impacts on our Nation's environment. FFEO's goal is to improve compliance through a number of methods including assisting agencies and facilities better understand regulatory compliance requirements and appropriate enforcement response where necessary. Meeting the goal of improved compliance through the delivery of relevant training in an electronic, web-based format is one of FFEO's programmatic goals for FY08 and FY09. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (E-Pact) established new statutory requirements specifically designed to improve the environmental management of federal facility underground storage tanks (USTs). In response to the E-Pact, EPA contracted to have training developed regarding proper management of USTs to ensure federal facilities understood the legal requirements applicable to USTs as well as the operational methods to achieve and maintain compliance over time. Further, in FY07 and FY08 EPA paid for the "live" delivery of the UST training materials at workshops in thirteen locations across the United States. Demand for the training was considerable and workshops were consistently full with waiting lists to attend. It is clear that demand for the materials used in the workshops exceeded the capability of EPA to sponsor and host the training at additional locations and that additional delivery provisions were necessary. In addition, EPA was required to increase inspection and enforcement activities related to federal underground storage tanks. A compendium of the relevant instructions for enforcement actions was developed to assist EPA personnel with this task. While the compendium is available, a web-based, user friendly presentation of the document would facilitate its use. Requirements: The requirements in this contract are considered performance-based, focusing on the Agency's desired results and outcomes. The contractor shall be responsible for determining the most effective means by which the requirements will be fulfilled. In order to fulfill the requirements, the contractor shall determine innovative and effective processes that can deliver the required services in a manner that will best meet the Agency's program objectives as described herein Program objectives: FFEO expects that provision of web-based training and information transfer will enhance federal agency compliance with UST regulations in several ways. The training will result in improved federal agency staff knowledge and understanding of UST regulations and thereby improved compliance at federally operated tanks. The training will not specifically address state regulations which may be more stringent and vary from federal requirements. It will lead to improved knowledge and implementation of successful management practices to ensure employee competency and management awareness of critical UST operational elements. The training will also result in an understanding of pollution prevention and environmental management system principles applicable to UST management. As part of these activities, FFEO has an objective of greater use by the federal community of electronic, web-based training that compliments existing on-line resources as well as a goal of increased use of FedCenter for electronic training delivery and the ability to measure effectiveness of the UST online training in informing those accessing the training. The training should provide an overview of the UST and Leaking UST (LUST) programs including; 1) regulatory history, 2) regulatory overview, 3) detailed discussion of E-Pact, 4) UST operator and employee training requirements and 5) program issues and challenges. It should also provide information on UST systems and associated specific regulatory requirements including; 1) components of an UST system, 2) materials of UST components, 3) methods of release detection and, 4) release prevention for UST systems. The training should cover UST operation and maintenance and associated regulatory requirements including: 1) leak detection for tanks and piping, 2) upgrade requirements including spill, overfill and corrosion protection, 3) reporting and recordkeeping, 4) emergency response, 5) product compatibility and, 6) closure/correction action. Finally, the training should briefly cover the relationship between environmental management system implementation and operation of USTs and promote the UST/EMS "crosswalk" attached to this document as well as describe any actions associated with necessary procurement/purchasing to ensure proper UST tank operation. While the contractor may propose any structure to presentation of the training materials, the four areas above represent desired general content areas. It is anticipated that on line presentation of each area of discussion will permit those taking the training to navigate to desired specific modules within an area and that most modules with the course will take between 10 and 15 minutes ? less if appropriate. The training should utilize current training industry adult learning and training formats and processes including interactive training, quizzes to determine competence, the ability to provide a certificate upon successful completion of the training and other methods to ensure viewer attention and interaction. The final training will be posted at the FedCenter website and early and continual coordination with FedCenter personnel to ensure compatibility with the website's software is vital to the success of this effort. As a related goal, in addition to and separate from the web-based training, FFEO needs to ensure that the materials and links in the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Enforcement Compendium (see /www.fedcenter.gov ? EPA Enforcement Focus ? UST) are available on FedCenter, the EPA internet and intranet in a user-friendly, web-based format. The goal of this part of the effort is an interactive tool that will assist regulators, primarily case development officers and attorneys, in understanding the potential enforcement pathways and options available to address non-compliance identified during inspections and assist the user in understanding and navigating the UST administrative enforcement process. The enhanced UST Compendium will be posted at FedCenter, and both EPA's internet and intranet sites in an effort to provide maximum exposure and usage by EPA staff and the UST community. We expect that once the enhanced document is available, it will serve as a toolkit where all regulators can find samples of various documents associated with each step of the enforcement process. While the primary audience would be EPA enforcement personnel, the enhanced compendium will also provide information to other regulators and the regulated community on EPA's UST enforcement process. Performance Standards ? Monitoring Technique and Incentives Performance standard 1: The contractor shall develop training materials necessary to provide federal underground storage tank operators with adequate knowledge to comply with federal underground storage tank regulations. Monitoring Technique 1: The project officer will ensure that draft materials (subject matter) prepared for the training are reviewed by EPA program office personnel to confirm that the materials reflect current UST regulations. Incentive 1: If the materials do not correctly reflect UST regulations and require preparation of an additional draft, $500 will be deducted from the contract. Performance standard 2: The contractor shall ensure that the training format developed can be easily delivered by the FedCenter website for use by the Federal community. Monitoring Technique 2: The project officer will work with EPA representatives for the FedCenter site to determine if unanticipated changes are necessary to the FedCenter site to accommodate the training format. Incentive 2: If the training format requires changes or alterations to FedCenter software or hardware, the cost of those changes over $1000 will be deducted from the contract. Constraints: The training delivery must be compatible with hardware and software capabilities of FedCenter. There may be considerable variation in state regulatory requirements for UST and the training must address and explain this circumstance. The training should address the minimum requirements for Class A, B, and C, operators identified in EPA's Grant Guidelines to States for Implementing the Operator Training Provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPA510-R-07-005). http://www.epa.gov/oamhpod1/admin_placement/081685/index.htm
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