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No addendum(s) have been issued at this time.

Question and Answers will be provided here when available. Question and Answer section was last updated on 07/24/2026.

Question/Answer Section:
Q1: The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (IE LAP) certifies laboratories for microbiological analysis. However, this only includes methods for culturing of fecal indicator bacteria (e.g., E. coli, Enterococcus, Fecal Coliform, Total Coliform) and select pathogens (e.g., Cryptosporidium). No laboratories on the IDPH list are accredited for molecular biology testing of microbial source tracking markers (MST). Would NBWW be open to using a lab that we have used in the past for MST but that is not accredited by IDPH or IELAP?

A1:The NBWW has the intention to seek an Illinois EPA Section 604(b) grant which currently requires a monitoring related application to utilize Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (IE LAP) certified laboratories. That being said, a consultant would need to confirm with the Illinois EPA that a proposed laboratory (that does not have that accreditation) is acceptable for the 604(b) application for the NBWW to accept that proposal (with a laboratory not IDPH and IELAP accredited). This would have to be specified in the consultants proposal.

 

Q2: Please clarify if a project approach for three tasks needs to be provided and If so under which section?

A2: A general outline for the project approach should be detailed for each of the three scope of services items. There should be enough detail in the project approach description to indicate to the NBWW how and why this approach should be taken. Section: See Submission Requirements Item #5 in RFP.