Data Management Plan

Munitions and explosives of concern (MEC) have been deposited on the seabed of the United States outer continental shelf since World War I. The bulk of these munitions have originated from the U.S. Armed Forces while conducting military training exercises, war-time placement, and disposal and dumping activities. Since 1972 ocean disposal of munitions and other pollutants has been banned by the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act. Federal and state efforts to mitigate, map, monitor, and sometimes remove these munitions are ongoing. The location of these munitions is generally unknown, and their existence remains a hazard to people and the natural resources within this geography.

The term MEC defines a collection of munitions including; a) unexploded ordnance, b) discarded military munitions, and c) munitions constituents that are present in high enough concentrations to pose an explosive hazard.

Additional information on the location of MECs can be found in the data and references listed below:

1. Formerly Used Defense Sites

2. Danger Zones and Restricted Areas

3. U.S. Disposal of Chemical Weapons in the Ocean: Background and Issues for Congress, CRS Report for Congress, January 3, 2007

4. Defense Environmental Programs Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2009. Chapter 10. Sea Disposal of Military Munitions

Process Steps:

• 2023-01-11 00:00:00 - 1. Acquire source data by URL 2. Imported ENC area and point layers for Dumping Ground, and Caution features for bands a) coastal, b) approach, and c) harbor scale 3. Removed duplicate features 4. Removed features not clearly identified as unexploded ordnance 5. Removed features beyond the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone 6. Removed features if they matched content currently in the Danger Zones and Restricted Areas data set 7. Validated completeness by visual comparison to current NOAA Raster Navigational Charts, Marine Cadastre map services Unexploded Ordnance Areas, Unexploded Ordnance Locations, Formerly Used Defense Sites, and NOAA ENC map services 8. Added new features listed in the Local Notice to Mariners 9. Adjusted the location, size and shape of each feature to align with the highest resolution NOAA Raster Navigational Chart available for each location using the local UTM projection 10. Populated the comment field using the textual description for each feature shown on the RNC 11. Added the values for the U.S. Coast Guard district and the UTM zone for each feature 12. Removed duplicate, extraneous and relic ENC vertex values that did not contribute to defining the shape of a feature 13. Executed the ArcGIS Pro function DENSIFY with a four-meter setting on all newly positioned circular features 14. Executed the ArcGIS Pro functions PROJECT and MERGE to combine features across all UTM Zones 15. Executed and passed the ArcGIS Pro function CHECK GEOMETRY with the OGC parameter 16. Executed and passed the QGIS function VECTOR > GEOMETRY TOOLS > CHECK VALIDITY with all GEOS parameters set to on 17. Visually inspected each feature for accuracy and completeness based on the associated RNC
• 2023-03-08 00:00:00 - 1. Acquire and query features from the Danger Zones and Restricted Areas data set that depict MEC features 2. Modify the Danger Zones and Restricted Areas record set to match the existing Munitions and Explosives of Concern data structure 3. APPEND the Danger Zones and Restricted Areas record set to the existing Munitions and Explosives of Concern data set
• 2024-02-28 00:00:00 - 1. Add newly discovered feature east of New York city 2. Fix several omissions in the following areas, Guam, Mariana Islands, Thunder Bay Michigan, North Carolina, Key West Florida, and Lake Borgne Louisiana