Advance Contract Award Notice – Analysis of mercury in precipitation and ammonia in air at select Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network monitoring sites

Advance Contract Award Notice – Analysis of mercury in precipitation and ammonia in air at select Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network monitoring sites

1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)

   An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

2. Definition of the requirement
    

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) intends on entering into a contract with the University of Wisconsin for Analysis of mercury in precipitation and ammonia in air at select Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CAPMoN) monitoring sites.

Background:

CAPMoN measures regionally representative non-urban air quality across Canada and currently operates 32 monitoring sites. As part of a long term monitoring effort, CAPMoN collaborates with the United States National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) for measurement of specific atmospheric constituents and determine atmospheric chemical deposition throughout North America. This fully integrated collaborative approach eliminates the uncertainties of integrating data across networks and international boundaries and provides a long-term, continental-scale database.

CAPMoN measures the concentration of mercury in precipitation at a sub-network of sites as a member of the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN), under the auspices of the United States National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) to accomplish this portion of its mandate. There are 5 sites collecting weekly integrated precipitation samples specifically for the purpose of determining regional scale mercury amounts, trends, and geographical distributions of the deposition of mercury by precipitation.

CAPMoN also measures regional background levels of atmospheric ammonia at a subset of sites. CAPMoN samples are collected and analyzed through the Ammonia Monitoring Network (AMoN), under the auspices of the United States National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP). There are currently 3 monitoring sites that capture ammonia in biweekly integrated air samples to contribute to long-term trends in ambient ammonia concentrations and deposition.

Objective:

For mercury in precipitation, CAPMoN requires analysis of mercury in precipitation at 5 Canadian sites for up to 3 years. CAPMoN requires use of standard operating procedures, equipment and methods as developed and monitoried by the MDN, to meet the network quality assurance requirements and to provide a seamless North American database for mercury wet-deposition fluxes. The data are used to develop spatial and seasonal trends in mercury deposited to surface waters, forested watersheds, and other sensitive receptors.

In addition, passive atmospheric ammonia sampling is required at 3 Canadian sites for up to 3 years. CAPMoN requires use of standard operating procedures, equipment and methods as developed and monitoried by the MDN, to meet the network quality assurance requirements and to provide a seamless North American database for ambient ammonia and ammonia deposition. deposited to ecosystems across the North America.

Scope of Work:

The scope of this contract is to ensure that all aspects associated with the sampling of precipitation for mercury and the passive sampling of air for ammonia are completed in a manner that meets and/or exceeds the minimum requirements of both the NADP MDN and AMoN networks. This Work includes all aspects of sample collection, analysis of samples, quality assurance, and reporting of data.

The work will involve the following Tasks:

Requirements MDN:

All methods and protocols must adhere to the NADP Mercury Deposition Network Standard Operating Procedures

• Supply and provide shipping for all sampling media to a maximum of 5 CAPMoN monitoring sites in a timely fashion and ensure that there is sufficient sampling media at each measurement site to allow for potential delays in shipments.
• Support the on-site sampling instrumentation by ensuring that a technical expert is available to ECCC for technical issues and training.
• Support the on-site sampling equipment by maintaining a stock of replacement parts for both the NOAH IV Total Precipitation Gauges and the NCON Wet Deposition Mercury Samplers and provide replacement parts as requested to ECCC without additional charge and guarantee shipment to the monitoring site within 3 working days of the initial request.
• Provide replacement parts available to ECCC without additional charge and guarantee shipment to the monitoring site within 3 working days of the initial request.
• Process electronic files from the NOAH IV precipitation gauge as part of an automated process.
• Receive and handle all samples in the laboratory in a clean air low-mercury (< 0.05 ng/ml) environment and monitor the laboratory and all associated sample handling areas for potential mercury contamination in air on an ongoing basis and conduct reagent water tests as well as conduct a sample bottle testing program.
• Determine the concentration of total mercury in precipitation using cold vapour atomic fluorescence (EPA method 1631) and use the amended EPA method 1631 as required by MDN.
• Provide state of the art quality control and quality assurance protocols. The quality assurance plan must be rigidly adhered to and must meet or exceed the requirements as set out in the NADP document "Quality Assurance Plan Mercury Analytical Laboratory, 2006”.
• Create and maintain an electronic database
• Document data completeness and provide corrective action recommendations where necessary on a site-by-site basis.
•  Provide data validation flags with supporting documentation for all data. Data must be validated at a rate meeting or exceeding the requirement of MDN.
• Preliminary data shall be reported by means of a monthly report.
• Quality assured data are to be reported to ECCC electronically on a monthly basis no later than 120 days after sampling.
• All sources of original data are to be archived for a minimum of 7 years.
• Standard Operating Procedures associated with Good Laboratory Practice

http://nadp.slh.wisc.edu/mdn/

Requirements (AMoN):

All methods and protocols must adhere to the NADP AMoN Standard Operating Procedures

• Supply and provide shipping for all sampling media to a maximum of 3 CAPMoN monitoring sites in a timely fashion and ensure that there is sufficient sampling media at each measurement site to allow for potential delays in shipments.
• Provide 2 week integrated passive NH3 sampling media for up to 3 monitoring sites
• Provide sampling shelters for 3 monitoring sites.
• Shipping to up to 3 monitoring sites/year.
• Sample media extraction to occur under controlled and monitored laboratory conditions and sonication of samples in deionized water (>18megaohm)
• Chemical analysis of samples by Flow Injection Analysis (FIA).
• Provide state of the art quality control and quality assurance protocols
• Create and maintain an electronic database
• Provide data validation flags with supporting documentation for all data. Data must be validated at a rate meeting or exceeding the requirement of AMoN.
• Preliminary data shall be reported by means of a monthly report.
• Quality assured data is to be reported to ECCC electronically no later than 6 months after sampling.
• All sources of original data are to be archived for a minimum of 7 years.
• Standard Operating Procedures associated with Good Laboratory Practice

http://nadp.slh.wisc.edu/amon/

Deliverables

The deliverables are fully quality-controlled, high quality datasets of mercury in precipitation data and ammonia in air data, from a subset of CAPMoN sites.

Acceptance Criteria

The laboratory continues to meet performance standards as laid out by the NADP Quality Assurance Advisory Group (QAAG).

Schedule

• Weekly mercury analysis of samples collected on the identical sampling schedule as MDN.
• Bi-weekly ammonia analysis of samples collected on the identical sampling schedule as AMoN.

Crown input

ECCC is responsible for the following:

• Maintaining the infrastructure at each CAPMoN mercury in precipitation and ammonia in air monitoring site
• On-site maintenance of the precipitation collector and rain gauge (excluding parts which will be supplied by the contractor)
• On-site collection and handling of samples
• On-site data acquisition and completion of on-site sample documentation.
• Shipment of samples and supporting data from the CAPMoN sampling site to the contractor

3. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements):

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements:

•  A minimum of one year experience in the analysis both of collected mercury in precipitation and passive ammonia samples as part of a large monitoring network program;
•  Demonstrated achievement of analysis if mercury in precipitation with a method detection limit of 0.1 ng/L.
• Demonstrated achievement of analysis of ammonia in passive air samples with a laboratory method detection limit of 0.016 mg/L.
• Fully developed standard Operating Procedures for the field sample collection and lab analysis for both mercury in precipitation and ammonia in air.
• Documented quality assurance and quality control protocols related to the sampling, analysis, and reporting of mercury in precipitation and atmospheric ammonia including reporting of travel blanks and lab blanks.

4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s) (insert the applicable trade agreements:

Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)

World Trade Organization - Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP)

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)

5. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier

The National Atmospheric Deposition Program is a cooperative research program which measures, assesses and reports on the exposure of natural and cultural resources to atmospheric chemical deposition throughout North America. The NADP program office is located at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. It provides the coordination, provision of chemical analysis and data validation, site operator support and training, equipment repair, quality assurance, and management of NADP database and Web site (http://nadp.slh.wisc.edu).

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene is the sole provider of analytical laboratory services for samples collected under the auspices of the program. Mercury in precipitation and ammonia in air Samples collected by the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CAPMoN) contribute to the Mercury Deposition Network and the Ammonia Monitoring Network, two of five of the NADP networks. Use of standard operating procedures, equipment and methods as developed and monitoried by the NADP networks as well as continuity in the analytical laboratory is essential to the integrity of the long-term data trend in North America.

6. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s):

The following exception(s) to the Government Contracts Regulations is (are) invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) –

"only one person is capable of performing the contract”

7. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons

The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the (section of the trade agreement(s) specified):

Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) – Article 513(a)

World Trade Organization - Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP) – Article XV.1.(a)

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – Article(s) 1016.2(b)

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) – Article 19.4(b)

8. Ownership of Intellectual Property

Canada intends to retain ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract on the basis that the main purpose of the contract is to generate knowledge and information for public dissemination.

9. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date

Initial Period:
The proposed contract is for the period of Contract award to September 30, 2020.

Option Periods:

The optional period is from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2022.

The contract includes up to two one-year option periods as follows:

Option Period One – October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021

Option Period Two – October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022

10. Cost estimate of the proposed contract

Initial Period:

The estimated value of the firm requirement is $75,635.38, applicable taxes extra for 5 MDN sites and 3 AMoN sites.

The estimated value for the optional requirement is $58,294.88, applicable taxes extra for up to an additional 3 MDN sites with Methyl Mercury and up to an additional 3 AMoN sites.

Optional Period:

The estimated value for the optional period is $288,284.90, applicable taxes extra.

The estimate value of the contract, including options is $422,215.16, applicable taxes extra.

11. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier

University of Wisconsin System O/A Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene

465 Henry Mall

Madison, WI 53706

United States

12. Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

13. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities

The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is December 27, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

14. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities

Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

Shawn Davis

Procurement and Contracting

Environment and Climate Change Canada

200 Boulevard Sacré Coeur

Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0H3

Telephone: 819-938-3814
Email: shawn.davis@canada.ca