RS-VSP: A New Approach to Support Military Range Sustainability

Abstract

The Navy, through Range Sustainability and Environmental Program Assessment (RSEPA), is taking the initiative to identify potential off-range transport of munitions constituents. To accomplish this initiative, the Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for sampling and testing at operational ranges was developed. A key goal of environmental sampling plan design is to specify representative sampling requirements necessary to determine the presence and distribution of environmental constituents. Range Sustainability-Visual Sample Plan (RS-VSP) is a software tool that was developed to achieve the environmental sampling goal of representative sampling for RSEPA QAPP implementation so that data collected provide the data user with the required information for knowledgeable decision making. The VSP-RSM supports a sampling approach designed to bound a "source area" suspected of containing concentrations of munitions constituents above the relevant screening levels. RS-VSP incorporates an innovative approach to selecting data quality objectives, estimate sampling and testing uncertainty, and determining the number and location of samples. Preliminary assessments of off-range migration of explosives particles by windblown transport mechanisms, and the potential environmental impacts to surface water, aquifer recharge zones, and groundwater are planned under RSEPA. Besides windblown transport, infiltration of dissolved explosives residues into groundwater is another important migration pathway being investigated for range sustainability by other DoD agencies.