The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is helping transform how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) approaches environmental cleanup. By delivering advanced science, technology, and engineering solutions, ERDC is actively working to accelerate remediation, reduce risk, and return contaminated sites to productive use.
Working alongside the USACE Headquarters Environmental Division and the Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise (EMCX), ERDC is bringing critical research and technical expertise to solve complex challenges in three primary mission areas: Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS), Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), and EPA Support programs, including Superfund and Brownfields.
Currently, executing massive, complex cleanup missions across these portfolios is constrained by an increasingly resource-constrained operating environment, isolated data systems, and the need for more rapid technical support in the field. To address these limits, ERDC Director Dr. Beth Fleming recently convened a workshop to align enterprise stakeholders, prioritize concrete research requirements, and map out a collaborative framework that will speed up environmental project delivery.
“We successfully unified key enterprise stakeholders, identifying critical Research, Technology, Development, and Evaluation (RTD&E) requirements, and prioritized concrete next steps to de-risk and accelerate project closures,” said Dr. David Moore, Army Senior Scientist for Environmental Sciences and the event lead. He added, “In an increasingly resource-constrained environment, it is imperative that we avail ourselves of the full breadth of expertise across the USACE enterprise and work in a collaborative way to ensure we are effectively delivering for the American taxpayer.”
USACE Environmental Division Chief Chaela Smith discussed the division’s strategic responsibilities, stressing the need for technical solutions to increase site closure rates. Increasing these closure rates is critical; it means increasing the number of sites that achieve remedial objectives, thereby eliminating contaminant exposure and enabling the safe transfer of properties to other productive uses. With each accelerated site closure, the potential for future liabilities and the associated financial consequences are significantly reduced.
To achieve this, the team is mapping out new, forward-looking initiatives. These include deploying an AI-searchable technical solutions repository, optimizing long-term monitoring to reduce costs, and expanding high-impact pilot projects directly supporting FUDS, BRAC, and Superfund execution.
Furthermore, the workshop highlighted the need for scalable support models. Dr. Burton Suedel, USACE Dredging Operations Technical Support (DOTS) program lead, illustrated how the DOTS program’s no-cost, two-man-week technical assistance model successfully accelerates district-level project delivery. The goal is to establish a similar, rapid-response support model tailored specifically for the Environmental Division, alongside advanced data-integration priorities presented by the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL).
By aligning technical expertise, advancing AI-enabled decision support, and exploring rapid technical assistance models, this collaboration establishes a clear framework to accelerate project delivery. If successful, this unified approach will directly enable the removal of contamination, reduce long-term program liabilities, protect public health, and ensure the safe reuse of land for local economies.