The ocurrence of excessive settlements in shallow foundations of buildings of a metalurgical
Industry have caused damage in the structures and problems with machine operations. In one case, a building had to be deactivated and demolished. Field investigations indicated the existence of acid and basic contamination from leakages and / or spills. The field and laboratory studies_indicate that contaminant infiltrations are the probable cause of the settements, associated with a structural collapse of the soil from chemical reaction and removal of grain cementation.