Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS or FDS) are properties that were owned by, leased to, or otherwise possessed by the United States and under the jurisdiction of the
United States Secretary of Defense
The United States secretary of defense (acronym: SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the United States federal executive departments, executive department of the United States Armed Forces, U.S. Armed Forces, a ...
. The term also refers to the
U.S. military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...
program created in 1986 for assessment and
environmental restoration
Ecological restoration, or ecosystem restoration, is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, destroyed or transformed. It is distinct from conservation in that it attempts to retroactively repair ...
, if any, led by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...
.
Overview
Of the potential 10,000 FUDS that have been used for military training, production, installation and testing of weapon systems the U.S. military has reviewed over 9,800 sites in the US and its territories for contamination by the
Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
, around 2700 of these properties were determined to be in need of
environmental cleanup
Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be required by regula ...
with restoration projects planned or ongoing, at an estimated cost of $14–18 billion.
Regulations
The Defense Environmental Restoration Program statute (10 USC 2701) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liabilities Act
CERCLA
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency ...
direct the assessment, eligibility for clean up and clean up, as does the
. One funding eligibility criterion is that the contamination must have occurred prior to 17 October 1986.
EPA determines if a site qualifies as
Superfund site
Superfund sites are Pollution, polluted locations in the United States requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. Sites include landfills, mines, manufacturing facilities, processing plants where toxic waste h ...
to be listed on the National Priority List (NPL)L per
National Contingency Plan The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan or National Contingency Plan (NCP) is the United States federal government's blueprint for responding to oil spills and hazardous substance releases. It documents national response ...
(NCP), 40 CFR Part 300. If it is not listed on NPL, the state or tribe is the lead regulator while DoD is the lead agency.
Sites
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Salt Lake City Radar Bomb Scoring Site
The Salt Lake City Radar Bomb Scoring Site ("Salt Lake Bomb Plotis a Formerly Used Defense Site that was an automatic tracking (AUTOTRACK) radar station during the Cold War. Operated by Detachment 6 of the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron whi ...
See also
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Agent Orange
Agent Orange is a chemical herbicide and defoliant, one of the tactical uses of Rainbow Herbicides. It was used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1971. T ...
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Environmental impact of war
of the environmental impact of war focuses on the modernization of warfare and its increasing effects on the environment. Scorched earth methods have been used for much of recorded history. However, the methods of modern warfare cause far gr ...
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Superfund
Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{Authority control
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Waste in the United States
1986 establishments in the United States
1986 in the environment