Earthworks Industries Inc. (“Company”) wishes to report on the status of the review of its technical submission for the Company’s integrated waste management facility at Cortina, California.
Last month, the Company submitted Site Specific Flexibility Requests (SSFR’s) to the Wintun Environmental Protection Agency (WEPA), the Cortina Tribe’s regulatory agency. Consistent with operating procedures, WEPA issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to potential engineering firms to carry out an independent review of the SSFR’s with a July 15, 2018, deadline for responses. Unfortunately, WEPA received only one response to the RFP. As it normally requires three responses, it has re-issued the RFP to additional firms with a September 15, 2018, response deadline.
While the lack of response is unfortunate, the Company is advised that demands on the engineering firms in California due to recent wildfires have created significantly more work for them.
The Company anticipated that there might be a shortage of responding firms so, shortly after WEPA issued its RFP, the Company issued its own Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and distributed it to several other national firms. The deadline for the RFQ responses was July 25, 2018. Unfortunately, the Company received no responses, which confirms the difficult market at this time.
We have contacted the Tribe to increase our collaborative effort to get through this selection process and secure a qualified firm to do the independent review.