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Environmental Programs

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages one of the largest federal environmental missions: restoring degraded ecosystems; constructing sustainable facilities; regulating waterways; managing natural resources; and, cleaning up contaminated sites from past military activities. 

Our environmental programs support the warfighter and military installations worldwide as well as USACE public recreation facilities throughout the country. 

Environmental Remediation

Environmental cleanup programs focus on reducing risk and protecting human health and the environment in a timely and cost-effective manner. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages, designs and executes a full range of cleanup and protection activities, such as:

  • Cleaning up sites contaminated with hazardous, toxic or radioactive waste or ordnance through the Formerly Used Defense Sites program
  • Cleaning up low-level radioactive waste from the nation’s early atomic weapons program through the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program
  • Supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by cleaning up Superfund sites and working with its Brownfields and Urban Waters programs
  • Supporting the Army with the Base Realignment and Closure Act program
  • Ensuring facilities comply with federal, state and local environmental laws
  • Conserving cultural and natural resources

Ecosystem Restoration

Through environmental planning, USACE works with other federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions to find innovative solutions to challenges that affect everyone – sustainability, climate change, endangered species, ecosystem restoration and more.

The Omaha District works to restore degraded ecosystem structure, function and dynamic processes to a more natural condition through large-scale ecosystem restoration projects throughout the Missouri River watershed and by employing system-wide watershed approaches to problem solving and management for smaller ecosystem restoration projects. Additionally, the USACE regulatory program works to ensure no net loss of wetlands while issuing construction permits.

The USACE strives to restore ecosystem structure and processes, manage our land, resources and construction activities in a sustainable manner and support cleanup and protection activities while leaving the smallest footprint.