SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

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/ GEOMATAIX 2.0 BACKGROUND This section presents a discussion of the site use and previous environmental investigations conducted at the site. 2.1 SITE SETTING AND VICINITY USE The site is located in Vernalis,within the Central Valley Physiographic Province of California. The Central Valley is bound to the west by the Coast Ranges and to the east by the Sierra Nevada Ranges. The Central Valley subsurface consists of unconsolidated Quaternary sedi- ments to 400 feet or more below ground surface(WHF, Inc., 1996). The triangular shaped, S.73-acre site is located at 35540 Welty Road in a rural area used for light industrial activities, and is bounded by State Highway 33 and the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way to the northeast(Figure 2). A Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P.,petroleum product pipeline that reportedly transports gasoline,jet fuel, and diesel is located adjacent to the northern property boundary within the Union Pacific right-of-way. Several farms are located to the west of site across Welty Road east of site across State Highway 33. Light industrial prop- erties and farms are located to the south of the site. Currently the site is an undeveloped field. From 1902 to 1935, the site comprised the northern portion of the Vernalis crude oil pump station. The pump station was part of the OVP system, which transported San Joaquin Valley crude oil from oil fields in Bakersfield to the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, California. Figure 2 shows the site, upon which the pipeline and a portion of the former pump house are located. The pipeline entered the pump station from the east and exited to the north across the central portion of the site. Also present in the right-of-way was the former Associated Pipe Line(APL) Company's (predecessor to Texaco and now ChevronTexaco)pipeline that transmitted heavy crude from the Central Valley to the Bay Area from the early 1990s to the 1970s when it was decommissioned. 2.2 PREVIOUS SITE INVESTIGATIONS Soil and groundwater investigations have been conducted at the site since 1994. A Phase I site investigation was conducted in 1995 (Geologic Technics), and Phase II site assessment activi- ties were conducted between 1994 and 1995 (Geological Technics) and in 1998 (Radian Inter- national LLC, Geomatrix). During the Phase II investigations, multiple soil borings have been 1loakNcptdWDoc_Safel5W0415011,0011Repor\Soil and GW ftepon-doe 2