Laboratory Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds in Biological Tissues

The Resource Stewardship Division (RSD) of Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (EPA) is responsible for providing credible scientific data and relevant information on the condition of Alberta's environment. The Division's mandate includes the timely and objective monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of air, land, water, and biodiversity to support an improved understanding of cumulative environmental effects. These data support evidence-based decision-making by the public, policy-makers, regulators, researchers, Indigenous communities, industry, and other stakeholders.

The objective of this project is to support multiple environmental monitoring programs within the Alberta Oil Sands Region through the laboratory analysis of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in biological tissues. Biological samples, including whole fish and fish tissue, will be collected under a number of approved monitoring work plans to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of PACs in aquatic ecosystems and assess potential changes relative to baseline.

The successful Contractor will be responsible for receiving, homogenizing, extracting, and analyzing biological tissue samples for parent and alkylated PACs in accordance with the analytical requirements specified in this Request for Proposals (RFP).

This RFP will establish a contract with a qualified commercial laboratory to provide analytical services for the determination of parent and alkylated PACs in biological tissues, including fish.

A detailed description of the required services is provided in Appendix B – Scope of Services.

Proposals must be submitted electronically, via email, in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat format by the RFP Closing Date and Time to the following email address: keegan.hicks@gov.ab.ca. The email subject line should indicate that it is a Proposal and include the RFP number and title.
The complete Proposal should be in one (1) email, including attachments, and should not be larger than 25MB to facilitate receipt by the Province. If multiple emails are required to accommodate attachment sizes, the emails should provide clear instructions on how the Proposal is to be integrated (e.g. 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3).
The official time and date of receipt of the Proposal will be determined by the email received time as recorded by the Government of Alberta’s email server. Proponents should be aware that, prior to such electronic delivery, incoming emails are subject to consistency checks and antivirus scans, which process can take several minutes or longer to complete. The Province will not be responsible for failures (technical or otherwise) that may result in a Proposal not being received prior to the RFP Closing Date and Time.
If the Proposal cannot be opened after reasonable efforts are made by the Province, the Proposal will be rejected.
The Proposal should be secured against accidental modification by the Province while being searchable and printable in its entirety.
Proposals must be received before 14:01:00 Alberta Time on the RFP Closing Date, or the Proposal will be rejected.
Proposals received after the RFP Closing Date and Time will be deleted.

Unless otherwise advised by the Contracting Manager, all questions and any form of communication between the Proponents and the Province in relation to this RFP must be submitted in writing to the Contracting Manager. All questions and responses will be documented.