The Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) is a program category under the DOD’s Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP), which establishes the rules or identifying elgible properties and setting aside funding to address properties posing human health and environmental risks. The MMRP focuses on clean-up efforts specifically related to the presence of military munitions.
The Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise (EM CX) assists all DoD services and USACE organizational elements in performing their MMRP work by providing technical expertise and training from subject matter experts covering all aspects of military munitions response activities. The EM CX is a leader in the development and implementation of key technologies that improve safety, decrease cost, and attain DOD cleanup goals more efficiently. The EM CX assists its customers at all levels of their program and project execution.
Examples of military munitions include the following:
- Bombs
- Land mines and grenades
- Artillery, rockets and mortars
- Guided missiles and torpedoes
- Bulk explosives, propellants, depth charges
- Chemical Warfare Materiel (CWM) and certain Chemical Agent Identification Sets (CAIS)
Customers include:
- The Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) Program
Superfund and other hazardous, toxic and radioactive waste (HTRW) projects
Military construction and range maintenance projects
Installation Restoration Program/Base Realignment and Closure (IRP/BRAC)
Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (SERDP/ESTCP)
Primary functions and responsibilities of the EM CX's Military Munitions Response Program:
- Maintain technical expertise and competencies to sustain the USACE environmental community of practice
- Conduct mandatory independent technical review for quality assurance of key project documents
- Approve project-specific explosives safety plans
- Conduct training and mentoring on MMRP policies, regulations, guidance and procedures
- Draft guidance, policy, and regulations
- Coordinate technical and policy issues with HQUSACE and Department of the Army safety community
- Promote effective risk communication as a means of facilitating assessment and management of munitions hazards
- Promote and develop the 3Rs (Recognize, Retreat, and Report) Explosives Safety Education Program
- Promote the use of Advanced Geophysical Classification processes to improve data quality and the effectiveness of remedial actions
- Develop and present munitions and explosives safety related training
- Advise and assist on public outreach initiatives
- Partner with academia, research, and national professional organizations to share information and technology
- Develop and evaluate models to assess risk from explosive hazards
- Perform assistance visits to ensure site specific safety procedures are being executed in accordance with approved documents
- Conduct or assist in program and project quality assurance audits
- Monitor and help guide research and development programs to support USACE MMRP missions
- Evaluate innovative technologies for use in MMRP response activities and develop implementing guidance as requested
- Provide MMRP technical support to any USACE office conducting construction or HTRW operations in areas where military munitions are known or suspected to exist
- Coordinate and partner with other DOD and DA agencies, USACE activities, and state and federal regulators and stakeholders
- Conduct and assist in investigation of munitions-related accidents and incidents
Download the MMRP fact sheet (PDF):
Military Munitions Response Program
(as of September 2024)