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1 <br /> Human Health Screening Evaluation <br /> US Can—Welty Road March 19,2012 <br /> 1.2 SITE DESCRIPTION <br /> The Site is located in Vernalis, San Joaquin County, California in a rural area surrounded by <br /> agricultural, light-industrial, and residential properties. The Site extends from the northwestern <br /> boundary of the former US Can Company(US Can)property to approximately 500 feet south of <br /> the intersection of Highway 33 and S. Welty Road. At its widest point, it extends approximately <br /> 70 feet northeast and 200 feet southwest of Highway 33. An active Union Pacific Railroad <br /> (UPRR) right of way(ROW)parallels Highway 33 to the southwest. <br /> Insulair, Inc. (Insulair), a paper products manufacturer, leased and operated a large portion of the <br /> on-site property(located at the southwest corner of Highway 33 and Welty Road)until April <br /> 2009. Prior to Insulair's tenancy, Hunter Container Corporation(Hunter Container), a container <br /> manufacturer, and US Can, a can manufacturer, operated on the property. Hunter Container still <br /> owns the property. <br /> Crop Production Services, Inc. (CPS; formerly Western Farm Services) is located across the <br /> UPRR and Highway 33 ROWS from the Site. CPS has stored and distributed bulk liquid and dry <br /> fertilizers on its facility since 1969. A former Union Oil service station was located at the <br /> northeast corner of Highway 33 and S. Welty Road. The former Vernalis Pump Station, a <br /> former OVP crude-oil pumping station, is located across S. Welty Road from the Site. The Site <br /> and surrounding properties are shown on Figure 2. <br /> The Site includes historical easements for the former OVP and TAOC pipelines. The pipelines <br /> were located parallel to and south of the UPRR tracks. <br /> The OVP was installed between 1902 and 1904 as a"hot line"(i.e., the oil was heated to <br /> facilitate transmission) and carried San Joaquin Valley crude oil north from the Kern River Oil <br /> Fields (in and near Bakersfield) to the Richmond Refinery. The pipeline and associated pump <br /> stations operated from 1903 until the early to mid 1930s. <br /> The TAOC pipeline system was constructed in 1907 and transmitted heated crude oil from the <br /> southern San Joaquin Valley to the Bay Area. For a relatively short time the pipelines <br /> transmitted a cutter stock with the crude oil between Coalinga and the Bay Area; the cutter stock I <br /> was used to reduce the viscosity of the oil. The TAOC pipelines were operated until the 1970s. <br /> Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, LP (KM) currently operates a pipeline within the UPRR ROW I <br /> that runs parallel to the former HPP-BTR pipelines. The KM pipeline reportedly transports <br /> refined petroleum products. <br /> 1.3 PREVIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS <br /> In the process of investigating a former burn pit and a release from a condensate outlet, <br /> petroleum hydrocarbons were encountered in soil and groundwater on the Hunter Container <br /> property in the vicinity of the former HPP-BTR pipelines. As a result, in 1997 Chevron Pipeline <br /> Company initiated investigation of the former HPP-BTR pipelines in the area near the Hunter <br /> Container property. SAIC and others have performed multiple soil and groundwater I <br /> investigations at the Site between 1995 and 2010. In SAIC's 2010 monitoring well destruction <br /> and soil and groundwater investigation report(SAIC, 2010), SAIC concluded that the extent of <br /> affected soil and groundwater had been delineated to the extent practicable, and that the lateral <br /> extent of affected groundwater northwest of the Site would be investigated separately as part of <br /> 2 <br /> SAIC <br /> 1 <br />