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USACE Environmental Programs
from America's Engineers: The People, Programs, and Projects of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers '24-'25
Protecting human health and the environment
BY CRAIG COLLINS, AMERICA'S ENGINEERS
Most Americans may be unaware of the breadth of historic activities performed by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army in support of military readiness and national security – which include continued efforts today to clean up legacy contamination resulting from these historic activities.
“A primary reason why these sites need to be addressed further is that they were cleaned up according to the best practices at the time and then transferred to other owners, such as private individuals and federal, state, tribal, or local government entities,” said Antonia Giardina, interim chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Environmental Division.
“Since then, environmental laws and regulations have evolved, and so have cleanup standards. The cleanup standards in place in the past were less stringent than they are today because the environmental impacts were not fully recognized at the time. So, we’re still addressing legacy environmental contamination and we’re making progress every day in cleaning up these sites under our environmental programs.”
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About 75% of work performed under USACE’s environmental programs is devoted to environmental cleanup efforts. This includes work performed under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), the Defense Environmental Restoration Program, and work performed for other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Program. The other 25% is environmental quality work, supporting the Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal agencies in achieving their goals for environmental compliance. This includes providing technical assistance in planning, conserving natural and cultural resources, preventing pollution, and other concerns.
The increase is due to several factors, including USACE’s own nationwide focus on program management and execution as well as external factors such as new funding for other agencies’ programs through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “A lot of that money is now coming our way to support other federal agencies in their environmental efforts,” Giardina said – including EPA’s Superfund program and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
USACE’s cleanup activities are performed in accordance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. CERCLA is a significant environmental law that authorized removal and remedial actions at contaminated sites, established processes and protocols for cleanup, and set standards for engaging with communities affected by environmental contaminants.
Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP)
Beginning in 1974, cleanup activities under FUSRAP began at sites used as part of the nation’s early atomic energy program. The program was initially overseen by the U.S. Department of Energy, which descended from the federal entities that created the nation’s first nuclear materials: the Manhattan Engineer District and the Atomic Energy Commission.
USACE expertise in remediating and restoring environments and communities affected by hazardous waste made it the obvious successor to DOE in cleaning up former nuclear program sites, and in 1997 Congress directed that FUSRAP be transferred to USACE.
However, the transfer of FUSRAP sites to USACE in 1997 didn’t bring an end to the Department of Energy’s role in the program, explained John Busse, chief of USACE’s Environmental Support Branch. After USACE completes its cleanup activities and closes out a site, it is then transferred to DOE’s Office of Legacy Management. “They do the long-term stewardship of those sites, whether it’s maintaining the administrative records and files associated with that, or the land use controls, if necessary,” he said.
We’ve seen significant growth in our environmental programs, with about a $1 billion increase in annual obligations since 2018, and we anticipate that’s going to continue to grow.
– Antonia Giardina, Interim Environmental Division Chief for USACE
USACE is currently working at 20 active FUSRAP sites around the country. The agency recently closed out work in and around a landfill in Tonawanda, New York, that had been contaminated by wastes from uranium processing, and turned the site over to the DOE. The site, in Erie County, is in USACE’s Buffalo District, where Busse worked in the field, managing cleanup of uranium processing waste and residues at the Niagara Falls Storage Site, before moving to USACE Headquarters.
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Neither the Tonawanda nor Niagara Falls site pose an immediate threat to human health or the environment – but that’s not the standard USACE uses in measuring the success of its cleanup efforts. FUSRAP standards require USACE to protect human health and the environment far into the future – typically, for at least 200 years, and in some cases up to 1,000 years.
“One of the drivers of cleaning up these sites is trying to get them back to beneficial reuse, so they can be repurposed for other activities, whether it be residential properties or commercial use,” said Busse. For example, a former Tonawanda FUSRAP site recently became a FedEx shipping facility. “A completed site can also become a green space or a park, or whatever the community chooses to do with it for their benefit.”
Today, USACE cleanup experts are actively remediating FUSRAP sites located across eight states in Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Maryland. At these sites, remedial action is planned, underway, or pending final closeout. These sites do not pose an immediate threat to human health or the environment.
“We’re addressing anything related to radiological contamination resulting from historic activities performed as part of the nation’s early atomic energy program,” said Giardina, “even if it is low-level and low risk to the public.”
USACE’s health physicists – just one of the highly specialized professional roles supporting the agency’s environmental programs – advise community members on these risks to help them make determinations about what they ask USACE to do. “It’s really through the CERCLA process and engaging with communities,” said Giardina, “where we land on that decision for how we’re going to approach a site and address their concerns.”
USACE’s cleanup work isn’t limited to former atomic weapons laboratories or production facilities. Busse’s branch is also responsible for the Army’s Deactivated Nuclear Power Plant Program (DNPPP). The Army operated several nuclear reactors, from 1957 to 1976, to evaluate the feasibility of meeting the military’s power needs. The reactors were deactivated in the 1970s. Most were decommissioned, and three were placed in safe storage while USACE experts monitored, safeguarded, and maintained them.
The first of these reactors, The MH-1A reactor aboard the barge Sturgis – the world’s first floating nuclear power plant – was decommissioned through the DNPPP in 2019. “We are in the process of finishing up the reactor at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, called SM-1,” Busse said, “and just kicked off our decommissioning activities at SM-1A at Fort Greely, Alaska.” Both efforts are scheduled to be completed in 2029. The quality of this work, the public engagement with stakeholders, and the demonstration of the full life cycle of nuclear power technology – which paves the way for future generations of Army nuclear power plants – earned the DNPPP team a Secretary of the Army Environmental Award in 2024, in the environmental restoration category.
Through the DNPPP and other programs, the Environmental Support Branch does work for other federal agencies as well. The expertise it has matured through the DNPPP, for example, has led to its experts being hired to decommission other nuclear reactors, such as the one at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
“We have the technical expertise across the board to clean up these sites and get them back to beneficial use,” said Busse. “We’re able to support our federal partners and support their staffs with the technical experts they need to effectively complete their projects.”
Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS)
The other flagship program in USACE’s environmental portfolio is the Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) program.
From the 1930s to the 1950s, the Department of Defense acquired thousands of properties for training and supporting the armed forces during wartime. In the post-war years, as these sites were decommissioned, military property was removed from them and the DOD began the process of transferring them out of DOD ownership. At the time, not much was known about the health and environmental hazards posed by what was left behind, but as this knowledge became clearer to the scientific community, the need to address these risks became clear.
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On behalf of the Army, USACE has been responsible for cleaning up former DOD installations since 1986. It was during this time that Congress formally established the Defense Environmental Restoration Program, with the primary goal of reducing risks to human health and the environment from contamination that can include hazardous, toxic, or radioactive waste, and may also include military munitions, including unexploded ordnance (UXO). Since 1986, USACE experts have evaluated more than 10,000 former DOD properties and identified concerns requiring cleanup at more than 5,400 of those sites. Like all USACE cleanup efforts, FUDS adheres to the federal response and reporting provisions of CERCLA.
Examples of FUDS projects include the former Schenectady Army Depot in Albany County, New York, which processed military goods and stored wastes from 1941 to 1969. In 2024, it became the first FUDS site to be transformed into a community solar project. The new 2.8-megawatt solar array, owned and operated by Nautilus Solar Energy, will provide clean energy to 260 households.
To date, USACE has completed cleanup at about 3,800 FUDS projects. “There are currently around 1,600 properties remaining to be cleaned up,” said Gunarti Coghlan, chief of the DOD Environmental Programs Branch within the USACE Environmental Division.
One of the drivers of cleaning up these sites is trying to get them back to beneficial reuse, so they can be repurposed for other activities, whether it be residential properties or commercial use.
–John Busse, chief of the USACE Environmental Support Branch
In 2001, munitions response became one of the major FUDS activities when DOD established a separate program, the Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP), to provide specific guidance for USACE. Coghlan oversees FUDS, MMRP, and several other programs on behalf of DOD and the Army.
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Under MMRP, USACE is tackling technical challenges using the latest science and technology. On the island of Culebra, for example, about halfway between the main island of Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands, USACE is at work evaluating and responding to munitions that are underwater.
Culebra Island anchors an archipelago renowned for its white sand beaches. During World War II, the archipelago became the primary gunnery and bombing practice site for the Navy and continued to be used for this purpose until 1975. Unexploded ordnance remains both on Culebra Island and in its surrounding waters and is currently being evaluated and restored by USACE’s Jacksonville District with the support of several of the 60 ordnance and explosive safety specialists who work directly for USACE, all of whom are former service members.
The Culebra cleanup, said Coghlan, is both benefiting from and contributing to the knowledge base of programs that apply the latest science and technology to improve DOD’s environmental performance, reduce costs, and enhance capabilities: DOD’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP).
“Culebra is on the forefront of technology development for classification, identification, and also the recovery of munitions underwater,” Coghlan said. “We’re really proud of the work we’ve done at Culebra and the progress we’ve made toward returning some of the beaches to public use.”
Looking Ahead
USACE’s efforts to advance delivery of its environmental programs continues in several initiatives Giardina said are inspired by the priorities of USACE Commanding General and 56th Chief of Engineers, Lt. Gen. William H. “Butch” Graham: “They center on delivering today, innovating for tomorrow, and focusing on people always,” she said.
To accommodate USACE’s growing environmental workload, the agency has launched an initiative to streamline and accelerate the process of acquiring environmental services, and to build environmental contract capacity within its districts. “It can be a lengthy process to put contracts in place,” said Giardina, “especially large contracts. And one of the heavy lifts in that process is determining an acquisition strategy. So, what we’re trying to do is develop one big acquisition strategy, and gain efficiencies of scale, versus all the districts doing an acquisition strategy for each contract action.” Completing this significant step up-front reduces the burden on districts, allowing them to release requests for proposals more quickly to meet the needs of their partners.
To better analyze USACE’s environmental workload, workforce, and contracting capacity, USACE is working on several innovative data visualization initiatives. These new tools, Giardina said, “will help us continuously improve decision-making, by using data to make those decisions and also improve how we deliver projects from an enterprise perspective.”
The focus on people and technical competency and capacity within the various disciplines of USACE’s Environmental Community of Practice is paramount, Giardina said, because they are dispersed not only geographically, but also across USACE mission areas. More than 10% of USACE’s workforce specializes in environmental disciplines. “And these teammates work across our military, civil works, and research and development programs, in jobs that are uniquely focused on our environment.” Specialists include environmental engineers, chemists, geophysicists, hydrologists, botanists, archeologists, health physicists, and more. “We use our Community of Practice and sub-communities of practice to connect these geographically dispersed employees within the same environmental discipline, so they can share lessons learned and best practices, mentor each other, and have a team of folks to rely on when they run into challenges,” she said.
The workload for USACE’s environmental professionals shows no signs of letting up, and these initiatives will help pave the way. There’s a wealth of experience and success to draw from, said Giardina, and “we’re looking toward the future. Our environmental mission is an enduring mission, and we are committed to advancing our environmental programs to protect the health and well-being of communities and our environment.” AE
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