Cleanup - Military Munitions Response Program

The U.S. Armed Forces are the most well-trained, well-equipped military fighting forces in the world, primarily because they train as they fight and under realistic battle conditions. There is no substitute for effective training. However, as a result of years of training activity, unexploded ordnance (UXO), discarded military munitions (DMM) and munitions constituents (MC) are present to some degree at most training facilities and sites.

The Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) was established in 2001 to manage the environmental, health and safety issues presented by UXO, DMM and MC. The MMRP is an element of the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP), under which the Secretary of Defense carries out environmental restoration resulting from historical activities. The DERP, through the Installation Restoration Program (IRP), had historically focused on cleaning up sites contaminated with hazardous components, including explosives, but generally has not addressed either UXO or challenges presented by sites containing DMM or MC.

The Department of Defense (DoD) established the Military Munitions Response Program to reflect the statutory program goals established for the DERP, to enhance understanding of the nature of munitions response sites, and to manage response activities more effectively. Since the DERP is intended to address environmental problems remaining from past practices, the MMRP does not cover munitions responses for areas that operated after fiscal year 2002.

Important elements of the MMRP are as follows:

Requires the DoD to establish and maintain an inventory of non-operational ranges that contain or are suspected to contain UXO, DMM or MC;
Establishes the requirement to identify, characterize, track and report data on MMRP sites and response actions;
Requires a sequencing process to prioritize site cleanup and site-specific cost estimates to complete the response;
Requires installations to program and budget for MMRP response actions.

Between 2001 and 2003, the Army completed a comprehensive inventory of its non-operational training ranges and defense sites with UXO, DMM or MC. The resulting inventory reports mark the completion of the Preliminary Assessment phase under CERCLA. This information will provide critical environmental data and help determine the eligibility of these defense sites for the MMRP. In 2003 the Army began conducting site inspections at installations with MMRP sites. Implementation of the program will help the U.S. Army budget, manage and integrate safety and restoration requirements into its overall environmental cleanup program.

Closed, Transferring, and Transferred (CTT) Range Inventory Program

For more information on the MMRP.