DoD recently formed the Materials of Evolving Regulatory Interest Team (MERIT) to address the environmental safety and human health of materials used by DoD and are subject to new regulatory standards. Many of the materials that have the attention of MERIT are associated with ordnance products in one way or another; for example, perchlorate, RDX, DNT, and nanomaterials are just a few. MERIT is establishing processes and policies to protect human and environmental health and reduce DoD's costs and liabilities caused by emerging environmental issues related to these materials. This technical brief will give an overview about emerging contaminants, MERIT's objective, structure and recent accomplishments.