Washington, DC The Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense released Report Number DODIG-2020-093, "Audit of the Department of Defense's Processes to Identify and Clear Munitions and Explosives of Concern During Construction on Guam." The audit sought to "determine whether DoD personnel implemented safety standards and quality assurance controls for addressing MEC during military construction projects on Guam, and whether DoD personnel properly managed safety concerns and readiness related to MEC on Guam in accordance with military standards and risk-management instructions."

The study reviewed the overall MEC clearance process for military construction (MILCON) projects at Joint Region Marianas (JRM), the joint U.S. military command on Guam. It is estimated that The Battle of Guam during WWII resulted in some 11,000 MEC items due to heavy air, sea, and land bombings.

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The annual report outlining the progress made in the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) during FY2006 was submitted to Congress. The report provides a status of the Installation Restoration Program and Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) sites. MMRP sites include sites on active DoD installations, BRAC installations, and Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS). A new addition to the FY2006 annual report was an update on the munitions sea disposal sites historical archives review and inventory. Summaries of the MMRP and munitions sea disposal findings are provided below.

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The Air Force released a guidance document designed for Munitions Response Program (MRP) Managers on preparing explosive and chemical safety documents for Air Force Safety Center (AFSC) and Department of Defense Explosive Safety Board (DDESB) review and approval. The document is presented as a guidebook that provides various real world examples of five Explosives Safety Submission (ESS) / Chemical Safety Submission (CSS) documents.

The guidebook presents six levels of sites starting from sites that have been strictly used for small arms where no ESS is required. For this category, the guidebook suggests that observance of the guidance may help if UXO is ultimately found at the site. The other levels are organized by relative risk and include Low Risk, Medium Risk, High Risk, and Worst Case Risk sites. The document provides five real world examples of ESS / CSS documents (one from each category of sites from low to worst case risk). Lessons learned from each real world example are provided along with copies of the comments and communications between command level personnel, AFSCA, DDESB and in some cases Stakeholders for reference.

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an updated report on DoD's Operational Range Sustainment Program, "Military Training: Improvement Continues in DoD's Reporting on Sustainable Ranges but Additional Time is Needed to Fully Implement Key Initiatives". The GAO report was prepared in response to the requirements listed in the FY2003 Defense Authorization Act (Section 366). Section 366 required the DoD Services to conduct an inventory of their operational ranges and to develop and report on a plan for the sustainment of those ranges. Section 366 required DoD to submit status reports on those plans on an annual basis between FY 2005 through 2008. DoD submitted the first plan in February 2004, its second annual report in July 2005, and a third and current annual report in February 2006. Section 366 also tasked the GAO to conduct an evaluation of those reports on an annual basis and report their findings to Congress.

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