Nevada Test Site, Environmental Protection Agency Farm, Area 15, Yucca Flat, 10-2 Road near Circle Road, Mercury, Nye County, NV

Significance: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Farm has been determined eligible to the National Register of Historic Places because of its association with historical and scientific events of exceptional importance. Variously known as the EPA Farm, U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Farm, NTS Farm Complex, and experimental farm, it was an experimental facility designed to study the effects of radioactive fallout on animal tissue and especially on the fodder-cow-milk food chain. As one of the programs that developed out of the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the EPA Farm is part of the legacy of radiation-related health concerns generated by the Cold War. The facility was decommissioned effective December 31, 1981 (although use of one of the buildings [15-06] continued as an abattoir for semi-annual beef sacrifice and quarterly deer collection, as well as storage of samples and equipment into the mid-1990s).
Survey number: HABS NV-28
Building/structure dates: 1964 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1965 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1966 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1968 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1973 Subsequent Work