# COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2019-01-20

**Citation:** PHMSA Report 20190009  
**Type / status:** incident / historical  
**Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration  
**Effective:** 2019-01-20  
**Published:** 2019-01-29

Gas transmission and gathering incident in ELKVIEW, KANAWHA County, WV. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 5129 NATURAL GAS released, $0 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings. PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

## Document text

Gas transmission and gathering incident in ELKVIEW, KANAWHA County, WV. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 5129 NATURAL GAS released, $0 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings.

Report number: 20190009.

Operator ID: 2616.

Reported incident date: 1/20/2019 4:10.

Location detail: 00+00

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: ON 01/20/2019, AN 8" RELIEF VALVE AT COCO COMPRESSOR STATION UNINTENTIONALLY ACTIVATED AND RELEASED A REPORTABLE QUANTITY (5,129 MCF) OF NATURAL GAS TO THE ATMOSPHERE. THE RELIEF VALVE IS LOCATED ON THE 36" SUCTION HEADER OF THE STATION AND ACTS AS A TERTIARY OVERPRESSURE-PRESSURE PROTECTION (OPP) DEVICE. THE FIRST AND SECOND OPP DEVICES DID NOT ACTIVATE. THE CAUSE OF THE RELEASE WAS INVESTIGATED. ICE BUILD-UP IN THE PRESSURE SENSING LINES (PILOT)CREATED A DIFFERENTIAL IN PRESSURE CAUSING THE RELIEF VALVE TO OPEN. NO FIRE, EXPLOSION, DEATHS, INJURIES OR EVACUATIONS OCCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE RELEASE.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $17,439 reported total cost, $18,079.803 in 1984 dollars, $22,199.252 in current-year dollars.

PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings.

## Provenance

- Official: Yes
- Source: <https://data.transportation.gov/api/views/27nc-rsge/files/2b05c2d8-d14a-4c56-ac1c-7d23a4bc31c8?download=true&filename=Gas%20Transmission%20%26%20Gathering%20Incident%20Data%20-%20January%202010%20to%20present.zip>
- Source ID: `phmsa-pipeline-incidents`
- SHA-256: `6ada4e1df4ec643a8339cc8621a4545e4bebd878a508ba17397e0f5d212f246d`
- Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z
- Exported: 2026-08-25T02:08:37.003Z
- Document slug: `phmsa-incident-27d88b9a9897e2e2a653b479`

### Source metadata

```json
{
  "recordKind": "pipeline_incident",
  "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering",
  "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering",
  "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present",
  "report": {
    "number": "20190009",
    "supplementalNumber": "31641",
    "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL",
    "receivedDate": "2019-01-29",
    "receivedDateRaw": "1/29/2019"
  },
  "operator": {
    "id": "2616",
    "name": "COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC"
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2019-01-20",
    "dateRaw": "1/20/2019 4:10"
  },
  "location": {
    "city": "ELKVIEW",
    "county": "KANAWHA",
    "state": "WV",
    "postalCode": "25071",
    "latitude": 38.40180645,
    "longitude": -81.41718611,
    "type": "OPERATOR-CONTROLLED PROPERTY",
    "details": {
      "DESIGNATED_NAME": "00+00"
    },
    "facilityName": "COCO COMPRESSOR STATION"
  },
  "cause": {
    "category": "EQUIPMENT FAILURE",
    "details": {
      "CAUSE_DETAILS": "MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT",
      "NARRATIVE": "ON 01/20/2019, AN 8\" RELIEF VALVE AT COCO COMPRESSOR STATION UNINTENTIONALLY ACTIVATED AND RELEASED A REPORTABLE QUANTITY (5,129 MCF) OF NATURAL GAS TO THE ATMOSPHERE. THE RELIEF VALVE IS LOCATED ON THE 36\" SUCTION HEADER OF THE STATION AND ACTS AS A TERTIARY OVERPRESSURE-PRESSURE PROTECTION (OPP) DEVICE. THE FIRST AND SECOND OPP DEVICES DID NOT ACTIVATE. THE CAUSE OF THE RELEASE WAS INVESTIGATED. ICE BUILD-UP IN THE PRESSURE SENSING LINES (PILOT)CREATED A DIFFERENTIAL IN PRESSURE CAUSING THE RELIEF VALVE TO OPEN. NO FIRE, EXPLOSION, DEATHS, INJURIES OR EVACUATIONS OCCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE RELEASE."
    }
  },
  "consequences": {
    "fatalities": 0,
    "injuries": 0,
    "commodity": "NATURAL GAS",
    "release": "5129",
    "propertyDamage": 0,
    "estimatedOperatorCost": 0,
    "estimatedEmergencyCost": 0,
    "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null,
    "ignition": "NO",
    "explosion": "NO",
    "evacuated": 0,
    "raw": {
      "FATAL": "0",
      "INJURE": "0",
      "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "5129",
      "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "0",
      "PRPTY": "17439"
    }
  },
  "provenance": {
    "viewId": "27nc-rsge",
    "viewUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/api/views/27nc-rsge",
    "assetId": "2b05c2d8-d14a-4c56-ac1c-7d23a4bc31c8",
    "archiveFilename": "Gas Transmission & Gathering Incident Data - January 2010 to present.zip",
    "archiveSha256": "fe0b136ca4b00ac987a8bc2e195098accf910d97512c5fc3b59e62d9da5f674e",
    "memberPath": "incident_gas_transmission_gathering_jan2010_present.txt",
    "memberSha256": "b435f2a25718cf54c54e00294e6788c4f9c6860e02fb86355e75d294c243c4dd",
    "rowNumber": 888,
    "rowSha256": "aefaf6285205d2c8486fd71bb9e3a8cc80cf91a4e3886f91951aaa9c2b5b0ca9"
  },
  "caveat": "Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings.",
  "operatorReported": true,
  "finalAgencyFinding": false,
  "flaggedAnalysis": {
    "dataAsOf": "2026-07-31",
    "flags": {
      "fireFirst": null,
      "significant": false,
      "serious": false
    },
    "standardizedCause": {
      "sevenCategory": "MATERIAL/WELD/EQUIP FAILURE",
      "sevenSubcategory": "MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT",
      "eightCategory": "EQUIPMENT FAILURE",
      "eightSubcategory": "MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT"
    },
    "costs": {
      "reported": 17439,
      "in1984Dollars": 18079.803149606298,
      "currentYearDollars": 22199.251968503937
    },
    "caveat": "PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings.",
    "provenance": {
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/data_statistics/pipeline/PHMSA_Pipeline_Safety_Flagged_Incidents.zip",
      "landingPageUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-incident-flagged-files",
      "catalogUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/Pipelines-and-Hazmat/Pipeline-Incident-Flagged-Files/qdme-9bbm",
      "retrievalMode": "official_live",
      "archivedAt": null,
      "archiveSha256": "317e6a3e16d60b9b677efe391dc40258b5dd7ead83fb8bea74cb553cedfbbdec",
      "workbook": "gtggungs2010toPresent.xlsx",
      "sheet": "gtggungs2010toPresent",
      "rowNumber": 1102,
      "rowSha256": "9f202dd8278b63f768c500dd76508cc3b5672383e7962d3f2b708503b2416e9e"
    }
  },
  "jurisdiction": "US",
  "operatorName": "COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC"
}
```