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SCJ Alliance MEMORANDUM <br />September 26, 2025 Project No. NWG0131 <br />Page 4 <br />included as Appendix C should be provided to the disposal facility in order to determine if <br />the soil can be accepted. <br />Soil Disposal Recommendations <br />If soil will be exported from the Site and disposed of for installation of the new UST, we <br />recommend coordinating with disposal facilities to confirm acceptance of the soil. We can assist <br />with soil disposal facility selection and creation of a waste profile, if necessary. <br />New UST Design Recommendations <br />We understand that the new UST will be a 5,000 gallon, 8-foot diameter, 16-foot long tank. We <br />recommend that the new UST bears atop a 6-inch leveling pad (minimum thickness) of crushed <br />surfacing base coarse, or other material directly specified by the tank manufacturer, placed and <br />compacted directly overlying native, alluvium sand or gravel soils below any undocumented fill or <br />coal waste observed in the test pits. We recommend an allowable soil bearing pressure of 2,000 <br />pounds per square foot (psf) be used for design. The allowable soil bearing pressure includes a <br />factor of safety of at least 3, and an associated total settlement estimate of less than 1 inch. The <br />allowable soil bearing pressure is appropriate for unfactored dead loads plus live loads and can be <br />increased by up to one-third for temporary loading condition for seismic loading. <br /> <br />We are not aware of any buoyancy issues with the existing tank and we did not observe evidence of <br />groundwater in our explorations that might result in buoyancy uplift. For this reason, it is our <br />opinion that buoyancy forces will not develop, and an extended base or anchors are not needed for <br />the UST to resist uplift. <br /> <br />For backfill soil vertical pressure above the tank, we recommend assuming a backfill soil total unit <br />weight of about 125 pounds per cubic foot (pcf). For soil lateral pressures from backfill acting on <br />the tank sidewalls we recommend assuming a soil friction angle of 34° and a total unit weight of <br />125 pcf, resulting in an at-rest (non-yielding), triangular-distribution lateral earth pressure of 55 pcf. <br /> <br />General Earthwork Recommendations <br />The Site subsurface consists generally of fill underlain by alluvium. In our opinion, earthwork in <br />these soils can be completed with conventional construction equipment. Based on our explorations <br />and on our regional experience, the contractor should be prepared to excavate and handle large <br />cobbles and boulders within the subsurface. <br />All temporary cuts more than 4 feet in height that are not protected by trench boxes or otherwise <br />shored, should be sloped in accordance with Part N of Washington Administrative Code (WAC) <br />296-155 for worker safety (WSL, 2022). For planning purposes, we recommend assuming site soils <br />as Type C with a maximum allowable temporary slope inclination of 1.5H:1V – to be confirmed <br />during construction by the contractor’s competent person(s). <br />We recommend backfill placed directly around and in contact with the tank surface conform to the <br />tank manufacturer’s recommendations for gradation, placement, and compaction methods. <br />Beyond/outside this zone, the on-Site sand and gravel alluvium below the debris-laden fill and coal <br />layer are generally suitable for reuse as structural fill provided, are relatively free from organic <br />matter or other deleterious materials, and are screened such that they do not contain particles