ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses ecological risk assessment (ERA) investigations for military-unique contaminants/sites. As contaminants to potentially be evaluated in ERAs, explosives, for all intents and purposes, are encountered by ecological receptors only in military settings. While there are numerous commercial manufacturers of explosives in the United States, ecological habitat is unlikely to be rich and dynamic at the manufacturing plants and this industry is tightly regulated with regard to the safe manufacture, distribution, storage, use, and possession of explosives. Other than spillages that undoubtedly occur at the plants, opportunities for ecological receptor exposures in this milieu do not exist. The releases, limited to discrete and remote locations, give rise to the question of whether a legitimate need exists for investigating Munitions constituents and Munitions and explosives of concern in two capacities: the development of screening concentrations or benchmarks and estimation of ecological receptor hazard.
