Overview
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) works in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to oversee and assist the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in the investigation and cleanup of active, closing, and formerly used military installations at which hazardous substances and/or petroleum products were used, stored, or disposed of during past operations, as well as military munitions response sites known or suspected to contain unexploded ordnance, discarded military munitions, or munitions constituents.
In efforts to provide equipped military forces to deter war and to protect the security of the United States, DOD constructed warfare production facilities and military training facilities throughout the country for decades. These facilities were used to store, manufacture, and test materials (including hazardous substances), without the modern and protective environmental practices established today. Operations often resulted in spilling or disposing of hazardous materials onsite or nearby. Furthermore, facilities no longer needed for defense purposes were often abandoned, with buildings, debris, and contamination left behind.
DOD began cleaning up contamination in 1975. In 1986, Congress passed the Defense Environmental Restoration Act and established the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) to clean up and restore DOD’s contaminated sites. Investigation and remedial actions performed at these sites follow the guidance of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA), and commonly referred to as the Superfund law. The Superfund law imposes requirements on the federal government, including DOD, to identify and address environmental problems for past activities at current and former military installations, even when the release or potential release is not eligible for the National Priorities List (NPL).