Deepwater Horizon Response Research Opportunity

Research Opportunity Number: Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) HSCG32-10-R-R00019

Agency

United States Coast Guard (USCG)
Research and Development Center (RDC)
1 Chelsea Street
New London, CT  06320

Research Opportunity Title

Deepwater Horizon Response

Program Name

Interagency Alternative Technology Assessment Program (IATAP)

Background

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) and applicable Federal legislation and regulations provide the USCG with broad responsibilities and authorities regarding oil spill response oversight on the navigable waters of the United States. Included are responsibilities and authorities to conduct, in coordination with other Federal agencies, research on innovative oil spill technology. In accordance with these responsibilities and authorities and in light of the numerous offers of innovative technology assistance to the response effort associated with the recent Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the United States Coast Guard Research and Development Center (USCG RDC), at the request of the Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) and the National Incident Commander (NIC), has issued this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the purpose of organizing the collection and enhancing the Deepwater Horizon Response Team assessment of the technology assistance offers.

This announcement constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) issued under the provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Subparts 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016, to provide for the submission of White Papers (written description of the idea) in support of the Deepwater Horizon Response under the following five technology gap areas:

1. Oil Sensing Improvements to Response and Detection
   (For example, tactical oil sensing, surface oil tracking and reporting, submerged oil detection, submerged oil tracking and reporting, etc.)
2. Oil Wellhead Control and Submerged Oil Response
   (For example, wellhead spill control, wellhead shutoff measures, submerged oil collection, submerged oil treatment, etc.)
3. Traditional Oil Spill Response Technologies
   (For example, booms, skimmers, surface collections techniques, absorbents, near- and on-shore response, innovative applications not commonly used for oil spill response, disposal, etc.)
4. Alternative Oil Spill Response Technologies
   (For example, In-situ burn, alternative chemical treatments, innovative applications not commonly used for oil response, etc.)
5. Oil Spill Damage Assessment and Restoration
   (For example, damage assessment techniques, tracking surface restoration technologies and submerged restoration technologies, etc.)

Paper copies of this announcement will not be issued.  Offerors shall respond to this BAA by electronically submitting a White Paper at www.homeport.uscg.mil/RDC-BAA-DHR. All contractual and technical questions regarding this BAA must be in writing and sent to RDC-BAA-DHR@uscg.mil.   Informational questions and associated answers (i.e. FAQs) will be periodically posted at http://www.homeport.uscg.mil/RDC-BAA-DHR-FAQ.

White Papers shall provide technology ideas/solutions to support the five technology gap areas identified above.  Offerors are hereby notified that it is highly likely that White Papers may be shared with several different Government agencies and other interested parties (which may include contractors) for review and consideration.

ALL WHITE PAPERS SUBMITTED TO THIS BAA MUST ALLOW UNLIMITED DISTRIBUTION BY THE GOVERNMENT (EXCLUDING ROUGH ORDER OF MAGNITUDE (ROM) PAGE).

The White Paper, except the page with the ROM, is to contain the offeror’s copyright notice with the following license: The Government is granted a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license in this White Paper to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by and on behalf of the Government.

In the alternative, the offeror may choose to make the White Paper non-proprietary and mark it accordingly.  However, more restrictive markings than that set forth above are not acceptable as this White Paper is to be broadly distributed, given the numerous parties (Government and private) that are engaged in the Deepwater Horizon Response effort.

Absent any proprietary marking, the White Paper will be presumed to be non-proprietary exclusive of the ROM.

All White Papers submitted under this BAA must be UNCLASSIFIED.

Submission under this BAA does not grant the offeror any waiver to any Federal, State, or Local laws or Agency regulations.

All submitted White Papers meeting the requirements of this BAA will be reviewed and evaluated as they are received.  Each White Paper will undergo an initial screening.  The initial screening will result in a determination that either (1) the White Paper has a potential for immediate benefit to the spill response effort, (2) the White Paper submission needs more detailed investigation or evaluation and will be forwarded to the appropriate Government Agency overseeing that portion of the Deepwater Horizon Response (EPA, MMS, NOAA, or USCG), or (3) the White Paper submission does not support this incident.  A Contracting Officer will provide a response to all properly submitted White papers identifying the initial screening determination.

With regard to Item (1), if it is determined that the White Paper has a potential for immediate benefit to the spill response effort, the White Paper will be forwarded to the Deepwater Horizon Response Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) for further action under its authority.  Further action may include contract actions by the responsible party (i.e. non-Governmental entity) or other federal agencies.  Other parties are to contact the offeror directly should they desire a ROM regarding their oil spill recovery efforts.  Parties other than the Coast Guard may use different evaluation criteria.

With regard to Item (2) above, if it is determined that the White Paper submission needs more detailed investigation or evaluation and it is forwarded to the appropriate Government Agency overseeing that portion of the Deepwater Horizon Response (EPA, MMS, NOAA, or USCG), that Agency will be responsible for any further action.  The Agency may request additional information including a request for proposal.  Offerors shall comply with the respective agencies’ rules and regulations.

ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:  This BAA is open to all responsible sources.  All Offerors are invited to submit White Papers.  Offerors may include single entities or teams from academia, private sector organizations, Government laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC).  The Government encourages non-profit organizations, educational/academic institutions, Small Businesses (SB), Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDB), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI), Women-Owned Businesses (WB) , and Historically Underutilized Business Zone enterprises (HUBZONE) as well as Large Businesses and Government Laboratories to submit White Papers for consideration and/or to join others in submitting White Papers; however, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for these special entities pursuant to FAR 19.502-2, due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of research and development in any specific requirement area.

AWARD INFORMATION:  White Papers will be accepted from offerors for one year from the initial FedBizOpps posting of this BAA unless amended by the Government.

The USCG RDC with input from other Government Agencies reserves the right to select all, some, or none of the white papers received in response to this announcement. Offerors are hereby notified that there is no guarantee of award of a contract.  The consideration for the limited rights granted to the government for each White Paper will be the distribution to other parties involved in the Deepwater Horizon Response effort; no payment will be made for the grant of such rights.

WHITE PAPER FORMAT:

The submitted White Papers shall be formatted to fit on 8.5 x 11-inch paper, single sided, double spaced with a font no smaller than 12 pitch with one-inch margins on left/right/top/bottom. The White Paper must be submitted in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Adobe Acrobat pdf format.  Zip files or other application formats are not acceptable.  Any graphic images inserted into the document should be in a file format such as GIF/JPEG that will minimize the file size and support clear display and document printing.  White Papers shall be no longer than three pages.  No separate attachments or media of any form will be accepted.

The White Paper content shall include the following:

Title Page:  The Title Page shall include necessary contractual information such as:  BAA Technology Gap Area Addressed (one of the five identified in this BAA), Name and Address of the Offeror (and any teaming/subcontractor partners), Contracting and Technical Points of Contact (names, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers.  The title page and the ROM page will not be included in the total page count of the White Paper.

SECTION A: Technical Approach:

Describe the proposed solution relative to the defined technology gap area. Focus content on the underlying technology that supports the solution and describe how the solution will benefit the identified gap area.  Focus content on the operational and logistical requirements that are needed to obtain and deploy this particular solution including quantity, availability and scalability of the solution. Content should include any previous testing and evaluation data that validates success of this technical approach, if available.

SECTION B:  Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) Cost:

The ROM shall consist of the offeror’s best guess of the anticipated cost of the total effort for a stated unit (e.g. $/square mile, $/linear ft., $/task, etc.)

WHITE PAPER SCREENING:  Individual White Papers will be screened solely against the evaluation criteria set forth in this announcement and without regard to other White Papers submitted under this BAA.  The screening of the three-page White Paper against the evaluation criteria is restricted to the content of the White Paper and will not include the evaluation of embedded links, videos, etc.  No other evaluation criteria will be used in selecting White Papers for further consideration.  Screening of White Papers will be accomplished through a peer or scientific review of the Offeror’s proposed approach using the following criteria:

1. Overall Scientific and Technical Merit
   The proposed solution presents a sound technical approach which demonstrates the effectiveness (through validated test data if available), reasonableness, responsiveness of the solution and an understanding of the Deepwater Horizon Response efforts.
2. Feasibility
   The proposed solution is feasible and demonstrates the benefit to the Deepwater Horizon Spill Response efforts
3. Availability of Proposed Solution
   The proposed solution demonstrates the degree to which it can be applied directly to the immediate Deepwater Horizon Response efforts
4. Rough order of Magnitude (ROM) Cost
   The ROM Cost is appropriate for the proposed benefit of the solution.

Criteria 1 through 3 are of equal importance and more important than Criterion 4.

Related Posts:

• WHOI Scientists Map and Confirm Origin of Large, Underwater Hydrocarbon Plume in Gulf
• Gulf of Mexico Topography Played Key Role in Bacterial Consumption of Deepwater Horizon Spill
• Comprehensive Picture of the Fate of Oil from Deepwater Horizon Spill
• BP Deepwater Oil Spill: Natural Resource Damage Assesment
• Focus Changes for Louisiana in Oil Cleanup