The Department of Defense established the Navy’s Installation Restoration (IR) Program in 1986 to identify, assess, characterize, and clean up or control contamination from past hazardous waste-disposal operations and hazardous materials spills at U.S. Navy and Marine Corps installations. The program was developed to comply with federal requirements regarding cleanup of hazardous waste sites. These federal requirements are outlined in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended in 1986 by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA).
In 2000, the National Defense Authorization Act required the DoD to establish a program addressing military munitions, known as the Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) to address munitions and explosives of concern (MEC) and munitions constituents (MCs) used or released on sites from past operations and activities. The Munitions Response Program (MRP) is the Navy's equivalent to the DoD MMRP. Current IR Program policies and procedures apply to sites under the MRP, as well as provisions for unique explosives safety hazards
The IR Program and MRP at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai are collectively referred to as the Environmental Restoration (ER) Program. The ER Program is a division of Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Hawaii’s Environmental Business Line.