Nevada Test Site Environmental Report 2003

Abstract

Introduction section which formerly included a description of the NTS and its environment, the NTS mission, and history of the site. The environmental description of the site was expanded to include climatology and cultural resources and was placed in a stand-alone appendix. A description of NTS missions and its history were placed in the Executive Summary. There are five major portions or divisions of the NTSER. The summary below is provided so the reader can see the overall organization and content of the report. Summary of SectionsExecutive Summary -This portion of the report is meant to provide the reader with: (1) the purpose of the NTSER, (2) the current mission and history of the NTS, (3) a description of possible radiological dose pathways to the public, (4) a description of any radiological releases, (5) the estimated radiological dose to the public resulting from site operations, (6) a description of any non-radiological releases from the site, (7) a summary of any environmental incidents of noncompliance that occurred during the year and actions taken in response to them, (8) a description of the management system used to ensure that work is conducted in compliance with environmental and public health protection, and (9) a summary of any significant environmental program or effort.Compliance Summary -The purpose of this portion (Section 1.0) of the NTSER is to: (1) present those federal, state, and local environmental regulations which govern how operations are conducted on the NTS in order to ensure that the environment and the public are protected; (2) present in tabular form a concise summary of how NTS operations complied with these regulations during the year; and (3) direct the reader to subsequent sections of this NTSER where environmental activities and programs are described in more detail. This section is divided into multiple subsections based on the type of regulations presented (e.g., water quality regulations are presented in a separate subsection from historic preservation regulations). There are a total of 12 sections within the Compliance Summary (Sections 1.1 -1.12), the last section being a list of all active environmental permits. Environmental Monitoring and Compliance Activities -This portion constitutes the main body of the NTSER.It is divided into multiple sections (Sections 2.0 -12.0) which present the reporting year's environmental compliance activities related to monitoring and protecting the public, air, water, biota, cultural resources, and sensitive species and ecosystems on the NTS. These are the sections of the NTSER which are specifically referenced in the Compliance Summary, Section 1.0 and which support the compliance determinations presented in summary tabular form in Section 1.0. They include:• Radiological and Non-Radiological Air Monitoring -presents the methods and results of monitoring radioactive air emissions and non-radioactive air emissions (e.g., other air pollutants) on the NTS which are a result of past and present NTS operations.• Radiological and Non-R...