Request for Qualifications 

The U.S. EPA has released a Notice of Funding Opportunity for Training and Technical Assistance to Improve Water Quality and Enable Small Public Water Systems to Provide Safe Drinking Water. The Solicitation from the U.S. EPA can be found here:   

https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/356521  

The Southwest Environmental Finance Center (SW EFC) at the University of New Mexico is planning to submit a proposal for National Priority Area 1: Training and Technical Assistance for Small Public Water Systems to Achieve and Maintain Compliance with the SDWA, including Improving Financial and Managerial Capacity. The SW EFC is partnering on the proposal submission with several other Environmental Finance Centers at universities around the country as well as some other partners. We are looking for private firms to potentially join our team to bolster our expertise. The work will include providing training and/or technical assistance to small water systems in all 50 states and 5 U.S. territories. The SW EFC is proposing a project period of 1/5/25-12/31/27. However, this time frame may change if EPA awards the funds sooner than we anticipate. This selection process is being used under EPA procurement rules to allow us to include for-profit firms on our team prior to submitting our proposal. 

Scope of Potential Activities: 

Selected firms will provide training (in-person and virtual) and/or technical assistance to small water systems on a variety technical, managerial, or financial topics. Topics may include, but are not limited to: Accessing Infrastructure Funding; Affordability/ Customer Assistance; Asset Management; Board/Elected Official Training; Communication to the Public; Cybersecurity; Data Collection; Emerging Contaminants, including PFAS; Energy Management; Environmental Reviews; Financial Management; Funding; Leadership and Communication; Mapping; Operations; Rates and Fiscal Planning; Regulatory Requirements; Partnership/Regionalization; Resiliency; Stakeholder Outreach; Water Loss; Water Reuse; Workforce, and Water Math. Firms can propose additional topics they believe will be beneficial to small water system operators, managers, decision-makers, or owners. These additional topics should be described within the response to this RFQ.  

Firms may engage directly with communities to share their expertise via remote or in-person meetings. In addition, firms may be asked to share information that would be useful to a wider audience via blogs, podcasts, or other durable resources (guidance documents, white papers etc.). Selected firms will also have the opportunity to develop tools and/or resources that will benefit small water systems. 

In your response, please include the following: 

• Company Description
• Portions of the Scope of Work your firm is Qualified For/Interested In Providing: Please indicate in your proposal whether you can provide training, technical assistance, and/or tools and resources. Additionally, please indicate which topics you would like to address from the lists below, or topics you can address that are not included. Be as detailed as possible regarding the number of activities you are able to take on.
• Topics Include:
• Accessing Infrastructure Funding
• Affordability/ Customer Assistance
• Asset Management
• Board/Elected Official Training
• Communication to the Public
• Cybersecurity
• Data Collection
• Emerging Contaminants
• Energy Management
• Environmental Reviews
• Financial Management
• Leadership and Communication
• Mapping
• Operations
• Rates and Fiscal Planning
• Regulatory Requirements
• Partnership/Regionalization
• Resiliency
• Stakeholder Outreach
• Water Loss
• Water Reuse 
• Workforce 
• Water Math 
• Other (Please specify) 
• Describe your geographic service area. This is a national project, including all 50 states and 5 U.S. Territories. If you cannot assist communities or train throughout the entire service area, indicate clearly where you are able to provide training and assistance.  Specify the percentage of virtual versus in-person service you anticipate providing (e.g., “80% of the work is anticipated to be virtual, with the final 20% in person”).
• Programmatic Capability and Experience related to the areas chosen from scope of work 
• Please describe your firm’s capabilities and experience from past work activities for each activity and topic you include in your response.
• Bio-sketches for key project team members describing experience/expertise/qualifications, staff knowledge, and resources or the ability to obtain them, to successfully achieve the goals of the projects. (This should be less than 3 paragraphs per team member.) Also describe your staff’s ability and experience to work in disadvantaged communities of all types. If any of your staff have proficiency in languages than English, please indicate which languages and whether proficiency is written, spoken, or both. 
• Three references for similar work with contact information.  

Budget and Schedule:  

• The budget is capped at $250,000 for the entire project period per selected firm. However, the amount of work may vary by year and by firm up to the ceiling amount. It is not guaranteed that the entire budget will be expended or that any money will be expended. The work will be given to firms on a per task basis with an agreement of the cost per task for the work. No task will be given to the firm that would cause the total amount of award to exceed $250,000. For example, if your firm is requested to provide an in-person training, you would provide a budget for that work and that budget would be agreed upon or negotiated prior to the work beginning. The work would begin upon acceptance of the scope of work for the work task and the associated budget. 

Selection Process: 

• The SW EFC is looking to select up to 2 to 3 firms under this solicitation based on the qualifications of those firms submitting responses.  
• Selections will be based on the range of activities the entity is able to complete and the firms experience in these areas. 
• Range of Activities Proposed under Scope of Work – 40 points 
• Geographic Coverage – 25 points 
• Experience – 30 points 
• References – 5 points 

Submissions:  

Submit materials and questions to Heather Sissons via e-mail at hsissons@unm.edu. All questions will be anonymized and posted here.

Deadline: Please submit all materials by close of business on October 30^th, 2024.