Military Munitions: DOD Needs to Develop a Comprehensive Approach for Cleaning Up Contaminated Sites

In the "Defense Environmental Programs Annual Report to Congress for FY 2004," the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics reported that DOD completed the initial Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) site inventory in FY 2002 and that this inventory is updated annually. As of the end of FY 2002, DOD had identified an inventory of 2,307 total sites. This figure increased to 2,817 at the end of FY 2003 and 3,398 at the end of FY 2004. DOD reported that this increase was anticipated as part of the MMPR development process. While DOD has not directly addressed GAO's recommendation to set deadlines, its continued efforts to identify and add new sites to the list complies with the spirit of this recommendation, which is to identify sites as rapidly and completely as possible so that it can better address the universe of sites to be assessed, prioritized, and cleaned up. They have done this, in part, by working to actively engage the community and other stakeholders in identifying and addressing environmental concerns.

DOD stated that, as required by Congress, it has developed and is using the Munitions Response Site Prioritization Protocol to assign a relative priority to each Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) site. The Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense (Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health) reiterated that the current timetable is achievable and that preliminary assessment will be complete by the end of FY 2007, and site inspections will be complete by the end of FY 2010. DOD determined this data would be appropriate and achievable after a careful evaluation of information currently available, time and resource requirements to gather needed information, and impact on the traditional hazardous waste program. As a result of applying the prioritization protocol, the anticipated completion date of the site inspections has been moved up from 2012 to 2010.

DOD responded that, as part of current budgeting and programming guidance, it established interim goals requiring completion of all preliminary assessments by 2007 and all site inspections by 2010. These goals apply to all the military components, eliminating the need to have separate service-specific goals. DOD also responded that it is working with each of the military components to establish additional goals, including the establishment of a program completion date and metrics to gauge progress toward goal accomplishment. DOD estimates it will complete establishment of interim program goals by December 2005. As of May 2006, DOD responded that the Inter-Service Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) Goals/Metrics workgroup is developing recommendations for "end of program" goals and metrics for implementation of the Munitions Response Program Prioritization Protocol. The MMRP goals are likely to be service and formerly used defense site (FUDS) specific, and are to be in place during the summer of 2006.

In DOD's response to our requests for update on progress with regard to this recommendation, DOD reiterated its concurrence with our recommendation to work on developing better cost estimates. DOD states that it has been working with the military components (Army, Navy, and Air Force) to determine realistic program completion cost estimates and budgets to achieve program goals in a timely and affordable manner. Specifically, DOD has been continually working to assess and study sites. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the Formally Used Defense Sites (FUDS) program, designated 84 percent of its environmental restoration budget in fiscal year 2007 for investigations and clean up actions. Most of this was spent on investigations which help them gather more site specific information, which in turn can be fed into cost estimating models to better determine the expected cost to complete clean up. DOD repeatedly acknowledges that they are committed to working with and consulting Congress throughout this process to help ensure needed funds are available in a timely manner.