• Establish a permanent center of excellence to anticipate and respond to emerging health and environmental needs
• Develop and implement an independent health and environmental monitoring program in the vicinity of the DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), and make the results easily accessible to all interested parties

The Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research Center (CEMRC) is a division of the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Under the terms of the grant from DOE, the design and conduct of research for environmental monitoring at the WIPP are carried out independently of the DOE, and the production and release of resulting reports do not include DOE review or approval. A brief history of the CEMRC is presented in Appendix A.

The CEMRC is operated as a research institute within NMSU, supported through grants funding and service contracts. The CEMRC's primary objectives are to:

• Provide for objective, independent health and environmental monitoring
• Provide advanced training and educational opportunities
• Develop improved measurement methods, procedures and sensors
• Establish a health and environmental database accessible to all sectors

1.  Assemble a team of highly qualified research scientists and support staff capable of carrying out current and future projects.

At the end of 1998, staffing reached 27 professional and classified employees. At the end of 1999, the CEMRC employed 28 personnel (Table 1). Two scientific positions are open and under recruitment.

2.  Create state-of-the-art laboratory facilities capable of supporting advanced studies in areas of scientific specialization.

In January 1997, the CEMRC was relocated to Light Hall, a new 26,000 ft² laboratory and office facility constructed adjacent to the NMSU-Carlsbad campus. The CEMRC's scientific activities are organized into five major areas of specialization, with corresponding assignment of staff roles and responsibilities. Although some of the CEMRC's projects involve only one or two of the program areas, all of the program areas collaborate in carrying out the WIPP Environmental Monitoring project, and this type of integrative research is also applied to some newly funded projects. The five scientific program areas include (1) field operations, (2) internal dosimetry, (3) informatics and modeling, (4) radiochemistry and (5) environmental chemistry. Detailed descriptions of each program area and associated facilities and instrumentation are presented on the CEMRC's web site at http://www.cemrc.org.

Establish effective liaisons with leading research groups and laboratories to facilitate shared services and collaborative research.

CEMRC has begun participation with the DOE/Carlsbad Area Office (CAO) in studies to quantify the natural radiation background in the WIPP underground. The results of the studies are being used by CAO in efforts to establish a Center for Applied Repository and Underground Science and recruit external research groups who could make use of the WIPP for projects that require low-radiation environments. These efforts could lead to new collaborations with scientists in a variety of disciplines, including astrophysics, health physics and genetics.

Program needs for external laboratory services have declined, but a few sub-contractual agreements were maintained or initiated to provide specific advanced methodologies for selected analyses (Appendix B). In addition to services provided by external organizations, several NMSU departments and divisions also provided support to the CEMRC for specific projects, including the Soil, Air and Water Testing Laboratory (SWAT), the Waste-management Education and Research Consortium (WERC) and the Fishery and Wildlife Science Department. With respect to collaborative research, 17 of the 1999 publications and presentations by CEMRC staff were co-authored with external colleagues, and eight of the CEMRC's proposed and existing new projects involve collaboration with other departments or institutions.

4.  Establish an independent advisory body of scientists to provide expert guidance and consultation to CEMRC staff in the focus areas of CEMRC research.

The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for the CEMRC is composed of one scientific expert in each of the CEMRC’s five scientific areas of specialization (Appendix C). Each SAB member visited the CEMRC during 1999 to review the individual program areas and provide expert guidance and consultation to the program leaders. Each program leader used the SAB observations and recommendations in structuring specific developmental goals, new experiments and methods improvements. Program leaders provided SAB members with follow-up reports prior to each SAB member's visit during 1999. The term of service for SAB members is two years, and new members for 2000-2001 terms have been identified (Appendix C).

The Program Review Board (PRB) for the CEMRC consists of three members selected by the NMSU College of Engineering administration (Appendix C). Members of the PRB are directors or former directors of leading environmental research centers with histories of long-term success in sponsored research. Members of the PRB visited the CEMRC as a group during 1999, reviewed the overall operation of the CEMRC, and provided a joint report to the administration. An action plan responding to the review was prepared by the CEMRC director, and implementation of the plan by the director and NMSU administration is in progress. A follow-up report will be provided to the PRB members prior to their visit during 2000.

5.  Establish a program of administration to ensure effective operation of the CEMRC.

Current administrative staff includes a director, a fiscal specialist, a buyer specialist, a project manager, a manager of program development, a quality assurance manager and an administrative secretary. During 1999, partial support was also provided for three WERC administrators at NMSU, to assist in coordination with main campus business and with the WERC educational and research programs. Cumulative funding from the DOE for the CEMRP totaled approximately $20.4 million through 1 October 1999, including $0.5 million de-obligated from committed funds in March 1999. Cumulative expenditures by the CEMRP for the same period totaled approximately $20.1 million. Proposed new funding for the 2000 Federal fiscal year is approximately $3.4 million. Combined with carryover funds, the projected CEMRP 2000 budget is approximately $3.75 million.

Formal tracking of CEMRP project schedules and deadlines is conducted for current studies, as noted in later sections. Regularly scheduled work sessions for scientific program planning and problem solving are used to define accountabilities and track progress. Administrative and individual program area staff also have regularly scheduled review and planning sessions. Significant accomplishments and events are reported in monthly summaries provided to the DOE, NMSU, SAB and PRB.

6.  Publish research results and create a database management system to provide access to information generated by the CEMRC.

CEMRC staff authored or co-authored 14 presentations at international, national and regional scientific meetings and 20 papers were published, are in press, or have been submitted for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals and books during 1999 (Appendix D). A cumulative list of publications by CEMRC staff since 1996 is presented on the CEMRC web page.

The CEMRC issued a 1998 report that presented extensive data on radionuclides, non-radioactive constituents and other basic environmental parameters from the WIPP Environmental Monitoring project. These reports and other CEMRC information are available via the CEMRC web site, and data tables referenced in this report are also presented on the web site at http://www.cemrc.org. The CEMRC web site was featured in the September 1, 1999 issue of Environmental Science & Technology (Appendix D).

A notable new feature, the "FAS Lane", was added to the CEMRC Web page in July 1999. The FAS Lane presents the results of air sampling in the exhaust shaft at the WIPP which are updated weekly. This represents the most timely data available to the public concerning environmental parameters in the vicinity of the WIPP. A Laboratory Information Management System module was implemented and customized for the management and reporting of data for the FAS Lane.

7.  Establish regional, national and international outreach and collaboration.

During 1999, the CEMRC hosted 18 colloquia presented by visiting scientists (Appendix E). Each colloquium was advertised locally, resulting in participation by representatives from local scientific, educational, technical and natural resource management organizations. The CEMRC was involved in a variety of other outreach activities including presentations for local civic and professional groups and an exhibit for a border environmental technology conference (Appendix F). As described in a later section, over 400 volunteers from the local community have participated in the "Lie Down and Be Counted" project. In addition, CEMRC scientists provided leadership in a variety of professional and scientific organizations and meetings (Appendix G).

In July 1999, the CEMRC distributed the first issue of it's newsletter, The Monitor. The newsletter summarized progress achieved in the Lie Down and Be Counted project, described the FAS Lane and other aspects of the CEMRC web site, and provided general information about the CEMRC. Over 2000 copies of the newsletter were distributed to local residents and regular recipients of CEMRC reports. Future newsletters will be issued twice annually.

The CEMRC hosted a visiting scientist during 1999 (Dr. Xioaye Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Loess & Quaternary Geology, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China). Efforts are still in progress for a fellowship placement by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

8.  Procure additional research grants and service contracts from external sources.

CEMRC scientists generated 11 proposals, pre-proposals and contract modifications during 1999 (Appendix H). New or expanded funding was achieved on five projects totaling over $600,000, three proposals are pending, and four proposals were not funded. A total of 11 projects (external to the CEMRP) were in progress during 1999, with a combined value of approximately $1.6 million. These projects represent a wide array of activities, and they have resulted in significant expansion and diversification of the scientific program. During 1996-1999, CEMRC has received funding from a total of 14 different federal and private sponsors.

9.  Implement programs to offer technical training in specialized research techniques and methodologies and to involve CEMRC resources and personnel in providing educational opportunities for students nationwide.