The Department of Defense (DoD) is responsible for cleaning up contamination at properties, known as Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS), that were under the jurisdiction of the Secretary and owned by, leased to, or otherwise possessed by the United States at the time of actions leading to contamination or safety hazards caused by DoD. DoD has designated the Department of the Army (DA) as the Executive Agent for the FUDS program. The DA has overall management and cleanup responsibility for FUDS. As the Program Manager (PgM) and Executor for DA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) manages the cleanup of such properties under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) for those real properties that were transferred from DoD control prior to 17 October 1986.

The Army's's overarching vision for environmental cleanup is "To be a national leader in cleaning up contaminated land to protect human health and the environment as an integral part of its mission."

Cleanup Categories. In accordance with the Army's overarching vision for environmental cleanup, the Army's mission statement for the FUDS program is to "Conduct the cleanup mission for the FUDS program is to employ a risk management approach to perform appropriate, cost-effective cleanup of contamination caused by DoD and to protect human health, safety, and the environment."

Consistent with the statutory program goals of DERP, DoD has established three program categories to classify activities under DERP: installation restoration (IR), military munitions response (MMR), and building demolition/debris removal (BD/DR).

Installation restoration (IR) includes the performance of response actions to address release of the following at FUDS:

1. " hazardous substances or pollutants and contaminants as defined in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)

2. " petroleum, oils, or lubricants (POL)

3. " DoD-unique materials

4. " hazardous wastes or hazardous waste constituents

5. " low-level radioactive materials or low-level radioactive wastes

6. " explosive compounds released to soil, surface water, sediments, or groundwater as a result of ammunition or explosives production or manufacturing at ammunition plants

Military Munitions Response (MMR) includes those response actions to address Munitions and Explosives of Concern (MEC) and Munitions Constituents (MC).

Building Demolition and Debris Removal (BD/DR) includes the demolition and removal of unsafe buildings and structures at FUDS properties that were owned by, leased to, and otherwise possessed by the United States and under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Defense and then transferred to States or local governments or Alaskan Native Corporations. By policy, USACE does not normally perform BD/DR at privately owned property.

 FUDS Project Categories. USACE has further divided these three cleanup categories into the following project categories:

1. " hazardous, toxic, and radioactive waste (HTRW)

2. " containerized HTRW (CON/HTRW)

3. " military munitions response which includes those response actions to address munitions and explosives of concern (MMR/MEC) and munitions constituents (MMR/MC), both including conventional munitions and/or recovered non-stockpile chemical warfare materiel (RCWM)

4. " building demolition and debris removal (BD/DR)

5. " potentially responsible party for HTRW (PRP/HTRW) and MMR (PRP/MMR)

For the FUDS program, installation restoration includes HTRW, CON/HTRW, and PRP/HTRW project categories.