Prospective bidders on a Department of Energy contract for long-term storage of domestic elemental mercury now have two extra weeks, until May 20, to submit proposals.
In an update on its procurement page for Elemental Mercury Long-term Management and Storage, the DOE said Thursday April 21 that the submission deadline is being extended to May 20 from May 6.
The DOE’s Office of Environmental Management also posted questions and answers about the final request for proposals (RFP), published last month, on Tuesday. Questions on the solicitation were due April 1.DOE issued the formal deadline extension Tuesday through a notice in SAM.gov.
Early in March, DOE officially withdrew its designation of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Texas as the storage site for domestic elemental mercury. Dropping the earlier designation of WCS as the mercury storage site was a byproduct of a 2020 legal settlement of litigation brought by Nevada Gold Mines. Gold mining is a big generator of such mercury in the United States and the mining concern challenged the fee that it would be charged for long-term storage at WCS, as well as the public process DOE used in making the selections.
The winning contractor should lease or own a facility capable of accepting 1,280 metric tons of elemental mercury under the Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008. Among other things, the law requires DOE to establish a site for long-term holding of such mercury. In addition to commercial gold mining, DOE has been a major generator of mercury over the years.
