Synopsis:  This Special Notice is for notification purposes only and does not constitute a request for information or formal notice required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

Chemical Manufacturing

Product Service Code: 6850 Miscellaneous Chemical Specialties

NAICS Code: 325998 - All Other Miscellaneous Chemical Products & Preparation Manufacturing

Business Size Standard: 500 employees

THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT ON THE BASIS OF THIS NOTICE OR TO OTHERWISE PAY FOR ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE. This Notice of Intent specifies the direction that the USDA Forest Service intends to proceed with the Long-Term Fire Retardant Program for 2023 into 2024. This Notice does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this notice. This notice is for informational purposes only and shall not be considered as a request for proposal or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this notice or the Government’s use of such information. The Government is not requesting responses to this notice and any information received will not be returned.

Contracting Office Address: 

USDA Forest Service

Procurement and Property Services

Incident Procurement Operations

Logistics Contracting Branch

Primary Point of Contact:

Larry Robillard, Contracting Officer

[email protected]

208-407-6003

Technical Point of Contacts

Michael McFarlane, Fire Chemicals Program Manager (Acting)

[email protected]

208-860-7334

Hunter Jones, Chemist, National Technology and Development Program (NTDP)

[email protected]

208-290-4943

Background

All Long-Term Fire Retardant products shall be qualified and approved on the Qualified Products List (QPL) in accordance with USDA, USFS Specification 5100-304d (or latest version) - Long Term Retardant, Wildland Firefighting with amendments. For many years the Forest Service only had ammonium phosphate based LTFR products available from only one supplier that were fully qualified and could be used for the aerial wildland firefighting effort. Recently, a new supplier has provided several magnesium chloride based LTFR products that have successfully met the QPL specifications and have recently received full qualification status.

Description 

This Notice of Intent specifies actions the government intends to take related to the Long-Term Fire Retardant Program for 2023 into 2024. The purpose of this Special Notice is to announce:

• There are two qualified suppliers of Long-Term Fire Retardant on the Qualified Products List as of December 2022 (Long-Term Retardant QPL (usda.gov)),
• The United States Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service are developing and committing to innovative acquisition strategies to make meaningful consideration of products from both qualified suppliers in 2023, and
• The Forest Service is developing operational procedures to support the integration of multiple Long-Term Fire Retardant product types from multiple qualified suppliers for the future.

Current Testing of New Products

All new LTFR products are tested and approved in accordance with the testing procedures located at  https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/fire/wfcs/wildland-fire-chemicals-test-procedures.php to ensure that the product meets the latest specification (currently FS Specification 5100-304d available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/fire/wfcs/documents/5100-304d_LTR_Final_010720_with%20Amendment%201.pdf)

REQUESTED INFORMATION:

No information is requested in response to this Special Notice.