B -- SHANDONG ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SYSTEM

Notice Date

August 20, 2001

Contracting Office

USTDA, 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22209-2131

ZIP Code

22209-2131

Response Due

September 28, 2001

Point of Contact

POC -- Evangela Kunene, USTDA, 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22209-2131, Tel: (703) 875-4357, Fax: (703) 875-4009

Description

The Grantee invites submission of qualifications and proposal data (collectively referred to as the "Proposal") from interested U.S. firms which are qualified on the basis of experience and capability to develop a feasibility study for the expansion and upgrading of the Shandong Province environmental monitoring system. Due to the substantial population and industrial growth in the Shandong province, a significantly expanded and upgraded environmental monitoring system is needed. Key elements will consist of air, water quality, wastewater discharge, and ecological monitoring equipment plus laboratory analytical equipment and an information technology system for data management and reporting. The Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) of Shandong Province runs the current system and will be in charge of this expansion and upgrading project. Parameters need to be chosen which will adequately indicate air and water quality, ecological indices, and laboratory equipment plus field mounted stationary and mobile monitoring equipment needs to be identified to meet the new monitoring requirements. In addition to the actual Shandong EPB monitoring needs, the cities and industries within the province have to adhere to new monitoring regulations which will require more than 600 companies and all major cities to install air and wastewater discharge monitoring equipment. A feasibility study is needed to define the technical and financial requirements of these environmental monitoring improvements. The Terms of Reference (TOR) for the proposed feasibility study is broken into the four (4) major elements; A) Air Monitoring, B) Water Quality and Wastewater Monitoring, C) Ecological Monitoring Laboratory Equipment, and (D) Information Technology System. A synopsis of the scope of each of these four elements is presented below. AIR MONITORING The Shandong Province EPB needs to expand and improve their ambient air monitoring system and will also be requiring a number of major industries, primarily electric power plants, pulp and paper plants, and chemical manufacturing plants to monitor their air emissions. This will require the purchase and installation of a large amount of new air monitoring equipment by both the EPB and the regulated industries. Parametric coverage will include conventional air pollutants plus PM10, CO, plus Ozone and acid rain indicators, on a selected basis. The estimated total cost of the air monitoring improvements is $30 million including both EPB needs and the regulated industries. WATER QUALITY AND WASTEWATER MONITORING Water quality monitoring in the key river basins in Shandong Province as well as wastewater discharge monitoring at numerous municipal and industrial outfalls is a very important environmental priority. There is a great deal of concern regarding the long-term supply of safe drinking water to all areas of the province. A related issue is the impact of the large South to North Water Diversion Project being considered at the national level that will impact Shandong Province. This expanded water and wastewater monitoring system is a step towards a more complete understanding of the current water quality situation and a key element in the development of the plans for drinking water supply and wastewater treatment in the province. Conventional parameters will be monitored, some on a continuous basis, others on a periodic basis. Both river water quality and wastewater discharge monitoring is required. The estimated cost of the total water related monitoring needs is $45 million. ECOLOGICAL MONITORING AND LABORATORY EQUIPMENT Ecological monitoring for such parameters as biodiversity index, rate of desertification, occurrence of sand/dust storms, and loss of wetlands are of concern in Shandong Province. During this FS, the EPB would like to initiate the planning for collecting this overall ecological data for the province. Another aspect of this overall environmental monitoring system upgrading and expansion is the addition of new laboratory analytical equipment at various laboratories throughout Shandong Province. New analytical requirements plus increased sample load and replacement of obsolete equipment are the three factors driving these needs. All media are involved; air, water, and soils/sediments. Equipment planned includes GC/MS, GC, ICP, AA, TOC, and a variety of other laboratory instruments. The estimated cost of the new analytical equipment is $3 million. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) SYSTEM The overall environmental data management information network within Shandong EPB is inadequate for both the current operations and obviously for the future. Upgrading and expansion of this data management system is a high priority item. The environmental monitoring information system should be constructed with a focus on two parts, the data gathering system and the information management system. The data gathering system will serve the data collection function of all EPB monitoring stations (composed of the provincial station, the 17 municipal monitoring stations, and the 125 county stations) for air and water quality monitoring. The information management system will serve the function of storing, analyzing, and distributing the collected data through the local and wide area networks. Hardware and software needs will be identified based on the overall system requirements. The estimated cost of this IT system is $4 million. The U.S. firm selected will be paid in U.S. dollars from a $422,475 grant to the Grantee from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA). A detailed Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes requirements for the Proposal, the TOR, and a background definitional mission report are available from TDA, at 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22209-2131. Requests for the RFP should be faxed to the IRC, TDA at 703-875-4009. In the fax, please include your firm's name, contact person, address, and telephone number. Some firms have found that RFP materials sent by U.S. mail do not reach them in time for preparation of an adequate response. Firms that want TDA to use an overnight delivery service should include the name of the delivery service and your firm's account number in the request for the RFP. Firms that want to send a courier to TDA to retrieve the RFP should allow one hour after faxing the request to TDA before scheduling a pick-up. Please note that no telephone requests for the RFP will be honored. Please check your internal fax verification receipt. Because of the large number of RFP requests, TDA cannot respond to requests for fax verification. Requests for RFPs received before 4:00 PM will be mailed the same day. Requests received after 4:00 PM will be mailed the following day. Please check with your courier and/or mail room before calling TDA. Only U.S. firms and individuals may bid on this TDA financed activity. Interested firms, their subcontractors and employees of all participants must qualify under TDA's nationality requirements as of the due date for submission of qualifications and proposals and, if selected to carry out the TDA-financed activity, must continue to meet such requirements throughout the duration of the TDA-financed activity. All goods and services to be provided by the selected firm shall have their nationality, source and origin in the U.S. or host country. The U.S. firm may use subcontractors from the host country for up to 20 percent of the TDA grant amount. Details of TDA's nationality requirements and mandatory contract clauses are also included in the RFP. Interested U.S. firms should submit their Proposal in English directly to the Grantee by 4:00 pm, September 28, 2001 at the above address. Evaluation criteria for the Proposal are included in the RFP. Price will not be a factor in contractor selection, and therefore, cost proposals should NOT be submitted. The Grantee reserves the right to reject any and/or all Proposals. The Grantee also reserves the right to contract with the selected firm for subsequent work related to the project. The Grantee is not bound to pay for any costs associated with the preparation and submission of Proposals.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010822/BSOL002.HTM (W-232 SN50V3Y4)