The United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, Water Division has a requirement for the Technical Assessment & Response Team (TART) project.

Under the authority of legislation, Presidential Directives, and promulgated regulations, EPA is responsible for protecting human health and the environment. EPA is asked to respond in a variety of emergency situations impacting the water sector, some of which arise under the Stafford Act. EPA often has responsibilities to undertake pre- and post-incident assessments of public works and infrastructure.

EPA’s role under Emergency Support Function 3 (ESF-3) under the national response framework, is to respond to emergencies by supporting assessment, emergency response, and restoration of water infrastructure systems, including drinking water and wastewater utilities. EPA often has the responsibility for coordinating federal, state, local, and private efforts associated with responding to environmental emergencies impacting the water sector. EPA supports states, territories and communities in their preparedness and response activities. Outside of disaster response, EPA directly implements programs under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) on most tribal lands. EPA also supports Territories with their SDWA and CWA programs.

For purposes of clarity, the EPA team utilizing these services will be referred to as the Water Emergency Team (WET) and a single point of contact will be referred to as the WET Lead. In practice, an EPA Incident Management Team (IMT), led by an Incident Commander may be the primary beneficiary of support under this contract, or other individuals delegated appropriate authority by EPA to manage a response to a water emergency. Please consider WET to be the general term throughout this document.

EPA Region 09 is conducting market research to understand capabilities related to providing EPA with support for water emergencies. EPA anticipates awarding two contracts for water emergencies in FY25. The first contract (named TART) will be for technical assessment and response team; the second contract (named WERRS) will be for water emergency and rapid response services.

• Purpose
  • The purpose of the Technical Assessment and Response Team (TART) contract is to provide technical services to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal officials implementing EPA’s responsibilities. These responsibilities are described in the background section below. The contractor shall fulfill these responsibilities within the region as well as outside the region on a backup regional response, cross regional response, and national response. The contractor shall be prepared to provide scientific/technical support during responses for EPA activities to support the agency’s primary mission: to protect human health and the environment. Additionally, the contractor shall provide services to water programs for routine work as assigned. Examples could include construction oversight, data support activities, assistance training EPA staff as well as building contractor readiness. For each assigned task, the contractor will provide appropriately experienced, trained, and accredited personnel with current credentials/certifications, as well as all supplies, materials, tools, and equipment necessary to complete the job.
• Technical Requirements
  • Response Activities
  • Preparedness and Prevention Activities
  • Assessment/Inspection Activities
  • Technical Support Activities
  • Data Management Support
  • Training
  • Quality Assurance/Quality Control
  • Unanticipated Water Emergency