  We consider the cosmic muon background for the installations located at
shallow depths. We suggest a relatively simple formula for the sea-level muon
spectrum, which allows calculate dependencies of the vertical muon intensity
and integral muon flux density on overburden. Muon flux dependency on the
zenith angle at overburden of 10 to 100 meters of standard rock shows that muon
angular distribution practically does not change in this interval. We present
muon angular distributions for three typical apparatus locations in
measurements on the surface and at shallow depths. It is shown that for such
installations the active shielding "umbrella" should overlap a zenith angle of
\theta ~ 80^o to remove the cosmic muon background.
