MMRP Glossary
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA):The law that established a program to identify hazardous waste sites and procedures for cleaning up these sites to be protective of human health and the environment, and to evaluate damages to natural resources.
Decision Document (DD): A legal document that describes the remedial actions selected for a CERCLA site. A Decision Document includes reasons why certain actions were selected, how much they will cost, how the public responded to the Proposed Plan, and how the public’s comments were incorporated into the final decision.
Digital Geophysical Mapping (DGM): A method used to acquire geophysical data using self-recording instruments. The data acquired are post-processed to identify geophysical anomalies for further investigation.
Discarded Military Munitions (DMM): Military munitions that have been abandoned without proper disposal or removed from storage in a military magazine or other storage area for the purpose of disposal. The term does not include unexploded ordnance (UXO), military munitions that are being held for future use or planned disposal, or military munitions that have been properly disposed of, consistent with applicable environmental laws and regulations.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD): The detection, identification, on-site evaluation, rendering safe, recovery, and final disposal of UXO and of other munitions that have become an imposing danger, for example, by damage or deterioration.
Feasibility Study (FS): An investigation stage in the CERCLA cleanup process that identifies alternatives available to address contamination at a site, including an analysis of cost and how each alternative would protect human health and the environment.
Human Health Risk Assessment: An evaluation of the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks presented by contaminants at a site for current and potential future property uses.
Information Repository: A record or file that contains all information used to make a decision on the selection of a response action under CERCLA.
Military Munitions: All ammunition products and components produced for or used by the armed forces for national defense and security, including ammunition products or components under the control of the Department of Defense (DoD), United States Coast Guard, Department of Energy (DOE), and National Guard. The term includes confined gaseous, liquid, and solid propellants; explosives, pyrotechnics, chemical and riot control agents, smokes, and incendiaries, including bulk explosives and chemical warfare agents; chemical munitions, rockets, guided and ballistic missiles, bombs, warheads, mortar rounds, artillery ammunition, small arms ammunition, grenades, mines, torpedoes, depth charges, cluster munitions and dispensers, demolition charges; and devices and components thereof. The term does not include wholly inert items; improvised explosive devices; and nuclear weapons, nuclear devices, and nuclear components other than nonnuclear components of nuclear devices that are managed under the nuclear weapons program of the DOE after all required sanitization operations under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 United States Code [U.S.C.] 2011 et seq.) have been completed. (10 U.S.C. 101(e) (4) (A) through (C)).
Munitions Constituents (MC): Any materials originating from UXO, discarded military munitions, or other military munitions, including explosive and nonexplosive materials, and emission, degradation, or breakdown elements of such ordnance or munitions.
Munitions Debris (MD): Remnants of munitions remaining after munitions use, demilitarization, or disposal.
Munitions and Explosives of Concern (MEC): Specific categories of military munitions that may pose unique explosive safety risks, such as UXO, discarded military munitions, or MC that are present in high enough concentrations to pose an explosive hazard.
Munitions Response: Response actions, including investigation, removal actions, and remedial actions to address the explosives safety, human health, or environmental risks presented by UXO, DMM, or munitions constituents (MC), or to support a determination that no removal or remedial action is required.
Munitions Response Area (MRA): Any area on a defense site that is known or suspected to contain UXO, discarded military munitions, or MC.
Munitions Response Site (MRS): A discrete location within an MRA that is known to require a munitions response.
National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP): Also referred to as the National Contingency Plan, it is a plan required by CERCLA and codified at 40 Code of Federal Regulations Section 300 that provides a framework for responding to releases or threats of release of hazardous substances.
Non-Department of Defense, Non-Operational Defense Sites (NDNODS): Defense sites that were exclusively used by the Army National Guard and were never owned, leased, or otherwise possessed or used by the U.S. Army or other Department of Defense component.
Preliminary Assessment (PA)/Site Inspection (SI): A PA is a limited-scope investigation that collects readily available information about a project and its surrounding area. An SI is then performed if the PA results warrant further investigation. An SI includes activities implemented to determine whether there is a release or potential release and the nature of associated threats at a site.
Proposed Plan (PP): A public participation requirement of CERCLA Section 117 in which the lead federal agency summarizes the preferred cleanup strategy, the rationale for the preference, the alternatives evaluated in the RI/FS, and any Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirement waivers proposed for site cleanup. The Proposed Plan is issued to the public to solicit public review and comment on all alternatives under consideration.
Public Comment Period: A prescribed period during which the public may comment on various documents and actions taken by the government and regulatory agencies.
Remedial Investigation (RI): An in-depth study designed to gather data needed to determine the nature and extent of contamination at a CERCLA site for the purpose of developing and evaluating effective remedial alternatives.
Screening Level Ecological Risk Assessment (SLERA): A simplified ecological risk assessment used to provide an evaluation of the potential risks to ecological receptors posed by constituents of potential ecological concern. This assessment is used when there is limited site-specific information and, as a result, values are biased in the direction of overestimating risk. The need for conservatism is to provide a defensible conclusion that negligible ecological risk exists or that certain contaminants and exposure pathways can be eliminated from consideration.
Unexploded Ordnance (UXO): Military munitions that: (a) have been primed, fused, armed, or otherwise prepared for action; (b) have been fired, dropped, launched, projected, or placed in such a manner as to constitute a hazard to operations, installations, personnel, or material; and (c) remain unexploded either by malfunction, design, or any other cause.