As the nation’s environmental engineer, the U.S. Army Corps manages one of the largest federal environmental missions in the United States:
- Restoring degraded ecosystems
- Constructing sustainable facilities
- Regulating waterways and managing natural resources
- Cleaning up contaminated sites from past military activities
The responsibility to deliver environmentally sound projects and services to our customers touches every program within the Corps: Military Programs, Civil Works and Research and Development.
The scope and magnitude of environmental issues that the Corps addresses make it stand out among other federal agencies. But it is more than one agency can do on its own, it requires working in partnership with others to ensure our environmental efforts meet the needs of the American public.
The Army Corps of Engineers continually partners 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, environmental cleanup, ecosystem restoration and more.
The Army Corps of Engineers’ environmental professionals are key resources for anyone inside or outside the Army family, wherever and whenever environmental solutions are sought. The breadth and depth of skills found within the workforce gives it the ability to seek the best solution to environmental challenges.
The seven Environmental Operating Principles, or the Corps’ green ethics, are being incorporated into all Corps business lines to achieve a sustainable environment.
Restoring Ecosystems
The Corps works to restore degraded ecosystem structure, function and dynamic processes to a more natural condition:
Constructing Sustainable Facilities
The Corps designs and builds sustainable communities and facilities for the Department of Defense by:
Regulating Waterways and Managing Natural Resources
The Corps regulates work in the nation’s wetlands and waters, with a goal of protecting the aquatic environment while allowing responsible development. The regulatory program works to ensure no net loss of wetlands while issuing about 90,000 permits a year.
Cleanup and Protection Activities
Corps environmental cleanup programs focus on reducing risk and protecting human health and the environment in a timely and cost-effective manner. The Corps manages, designs and executes a full range of cleanup and protection activities.
Environmental Stewardship
The Corps executes environmental stewardship activities on project lands and waters to sustain natural and cultural resources and takes action to minimize adverse environmental impacts. The environmental stewardship vision is to provide healthy project lands and waters for future generations. The Corps environmental stewardship mission is to manage, conserve and protect the natural and cultural resources at Corps operating water resources projects, consistent with project authorities, ecosystem sustainability approaches, USACE Environmental Operating Principles, environmental laws and regulations, and the needs of present and future generations. The North Atlantic Division’s Environmental Stewardship Program promotes, restores, protects and manages our ecological natural resources while providing access to our lands for public use. We manage our lands and waters to for protection of fish and wildlife, limiting encroachments, maintaining our boundaries, reducing erosion, improving water quality, managing invasive species, protecting and managing for threatened and endangered species and cultural resources. Our environmental stewardship program encompasses nearly 150,000 acres and more than 500 miles of shoreline.
Bottom Line
The Corps’ goal for its environmental mission is to restore ecosystem structure and processes, manage our land, resources and construction activities in a sustainable manner, and support cleanup and protection activities efficiently and effectively, all while leaving the smallest footprint behind.