Laboratory services

Tender description

This requirement will be for providing UKAS accredited laboratory analysis on a wide variety of water samples (e.g. mine waters, groundwaters, surface waters and sea waters, etc.), in addition to solid matrix samples (e.g. ochre, mine tailings, sediments, soils, etc.) for a range of inorganic analytes and metals. More specialized analyses may also be required periodically, including but not limited to, gas analysis, particle size distribution, NORM concentrations, in addition to routine Environmental Health testing e.g. Legionella testing and Faecal Coliform analysis, etc. This requirement will be for providing UKAS accredited laboratory analysis on a wide variety of water samples (e.g. mine waters, groundwaters, surface waters and sea waters, etc.), in addition to solid matrix samples (e.g. ochre, mine tailings, sediments, soils, etc.) for a range of inorganic analytes and metals. More specialized analyses may also be required periodically, including but not limited to, gas analysis, particle size distribution, NORM concentrations, in addition to routine Environmental Health testing e.g. Legionella testing and Faecal Coliform analysis, etc. A typical number of 500 samples are submitted for testing each calendar year, but this figure is expected to grow over the life of the contract. The samples will be collected by either the Coal Authority, or an organization nominated by the Coal Authority, for which the successful laboratory will be required to arrange for sample collection, as well as delivery of sample bottles to an agreed list of locations. Please note, due to the unstable nature of mine water, we require the ability to acidify all water samples in the field – acidification upon receipt to the laboratory is not acceptable. Samples for analysis are collected from a wide range of sites across England, Scotland and Wales; however the main focus of the sampling regimes are in the UK Coalfields (South Wales, West and East Midlands, North West England, Yorkshire, North East England, Central Belt of Scotland) and Ore Fields (SW England, Shropshire, Mid Wales, North Wales, Yorkshire Dales, North Pennines, Lake District, Cleveland, Southern Uplands) across the country. A variety of analytical techniques will be required to fulfil the range of LOD’s required for our databases. For metal mine waters, the key metals include zinc, lead and cadmium, where LOD’s in the order of 1-2μg/L (or 0.1μg/L in the case of cadmium) are required. For coal mines, key anlaytes include total, dissolved and ferrous iron to a LOD of 0.1 mg/L, in addition to total alkalinity, total and cold acidity, suspended solids, sulphate (LOD 3 mg/L) and chloride (LOD 1 mg/L). Please note the composition of coal mine waters are highly variable, with iron concentrations ranging between <1 mg/L to >150 mg/L, chloride ranging between <50 - >20 000 mg/L and sulphate ranging from <10 mg/L to >3 000 mg/L. For solid samples, similar detection limits as above will apply for key determinands and provision should be made for use of techniques include ICP (MS/OES), XRF and XRD analyses. Many samples are collected from mine water treatment schemes, where we hold permits issued by the environmental regulators to discharge treated water. Part of this contract will therefore include provision to report early warnings against a list of trigger values where there is a risk that our permitted concentrations are being exceeded. The contractor will be required to deliver data in a variety of forms, including, but not limited to: UKAS accredited certificates, individual excel files for each sample report, collated excel files (or similar) to allow efficient upload into our databases. It is intended that this tender will consist of two lots. Lot 1 will be concerned with laboratory analysis of received samples (including collection of samples from any UK address via appropriate courier and provision of sample bottles). Lot 2 will be concerned with the provision of field analysis (e.g. pH, conductivity, temperature, redox potential, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids etc.), and sample taking resource across our UK sites. As part of the tender process, the Coal Authority reserves the right to request some cross laboratory testing of mine water sample/s of their own choosing, in addition to CRM’s, to allow a cross comparison of data at the tenderer’s cost. This requirement will be for providing UKAS accredited laboratory analysis on a wide variety of water samples (e.g. mine waters, groundwaters, surface waters and sea waters, etc.), in addition to solid matrix samples (e.g. ochre, mine tailings, sediments, soils, etc.) for a range of inorganic analytes and metals. More specialized analyses may also be required periodically, including but not limited to, gas analysis, particle size distribution, NORM concentrations, in addition to routine Environmental Health testing e.g. Legionella testing and Faecal Coliform analysis, etc. A typical number of 500 samples are submitted for testing each calendar year, but this figure is expected to grow over the life of the contract. The samples will be collected by either the Coal Authority, or an organization nominated by the Coal Authority, for which the successful laboratory will be required to arrange for sample collection, as well as delivery of sample bottles to an agreed list of locations. Please note, due to the unstable nature of mine water, we require the ability to acidify all water samples in the field – acidification upon receipt to the laboratory is not acceptable. Samples for analysis are collected from a wide range of sites across England, Scotland and Wales; however the main focus of the sampling regimes are in the UK Coalfields (South Wales, West and East Midlands, North West England, Yorkshire, North East England, Central Belt of Scotland) and Ore Fields (SW England, Shropshire, Mid Wales, North Wales, Yorkshire Dales, North Pennines, Lake District, Cleveland, Southern Uplands) across the country. A variety of analytical techniques will be required to fulfil the range of LOD’s required for our databases. For metal mine waters, the key metals include zinc, lead and cadmium, where LOD’s in the order of 1-2 μg/L (or 0.1 μg/L in the case of cadmium) are required. For coal mines, key anlaytes include total, dissolved and ferrous iron to a LOD of 0.1 mg/L, in addition to total alkalinity, total and cold acidity, suspended solids, sulphate (LOD 3 mg/L) and chloride (LOD 1 mg/L). Please note the composition of coal mine waters are highly variable, with iron concentrations ranging between <1 mg/L to >150 mg/L, chloride ranging between <50 - >20 000 mg/L and sulphate ranging from <10 mg/L to >3 000 mg/L. For solid samples, similar detection limits as above will apply for key determinands and provision should be made for use of techniques include ICP (MS/OES), XRF and XRD analyses. Many samples are collected from mine water treatment schemes, where we hold permits issued by the environmental regulators to discharge treated water. Part of this contract will therefore include provision to report early warnings against a list of trigger values where there is a risk that our permitted concentrations are being exceeded. The contractor will be required to deliver data in a variety of forms, including, but not limited to: UKAS accredited certificates, individual excel files for each sample report, collated excel files (or similar) to allow efficient upload into our databases. It is intended that this tender will consist of two lots. Lot 1 will be concerned with laboratory analysis of received samples (including collection of samples from any UK address via appropriate courier and provision of sample bottles). Lot 2 will be concerned with the provision of field analysis (e.g. pH, conductivity, temperature, redox potential, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids etc.), and sample taking resource across our UK sites. As part of the tender process, the Coal Authority reserves the right to request some cross laboratory testing of mine water sample/s of their own choosing, in addition to CRM’s, to allow a cross comparison of data at the tenderer’s cost. The Authority wishes to appoint a single or a number of suppliers to a framework to provide the scientific services described in the document — 2018 Laboratory Services Outline Specification_FINAL — which is included in the tender documentation. The required services have been split into four lots so as to maximise opportunity for the widest range of suppliers. The final number of suppliers appointed will be dependent upon geographical coverage offered by the supply chain. The conditions of contract are the Authority's works and services terms and conditions which are included as part of the tender documentation. Individual work instructions will be called off this framework as and when required. Indicative volumes are provided in the supporting information to this tender. All documentation can be freely accessed on our procurement portal and instructions for accessing the opportunity have been attached to this notice. The Authority wishes to appoint a single or a number of suppliers to a framework to provide the scientific services described in the document — 2018 Laboratory Services Outline Specification_FINAL — which is included in the tender documentation. The required services have been split into four lots so as to maximise opportunity for the widest range of suppliers. The final number of suppliers appointed will be dependent upon geographical coverage offered by the supply chain. The conditions of contract are the Authority's Works and Services Terms and Conditions which are included as part of the tender documentation. Individual work instructions will be called off this framework as and when required. Indicative volumes are provided in the supporting information to this tender. All documentation can be freely accessed on our procurement portal and instructions for accessing the opportunity have been attached to this notice