# WASHINGTON NATURAL GAS CO — Gas distribution — incident on 1996-09-16 **Citation:** PHMSA Report 19960152 **Type / status:** incident / historical **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** 1996-09-16 **Published:** 1996-10-21 Gas distribution incident in MUKILTEO, KING County, WA. Reported cause: DAMAGE BY OUTSIDE FORCES. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, $100,000 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: significant incident, not serious. ## Document text Gas distribution incident in MUKILTEO, KING County, WA. Reported cause: DAMAGE BY OUTSIDE FORCES. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, $100,000 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: 19960152. Operator ID: 22189. Reported incident date: 19960916. Cause detail: THIS WAS AN ON-GOING JOB THAT HAD BEEN ONE-CALLED SEVERAL TIMES. THE GAS MAIN WAS MARKED CORRECTLY JUST 6 DAYS PRIOR TO THE OCCURENCE OF THE DAMAGE. A CONTRACTOR USING A BULLDOZER ON A STREET IMPROVEMENT JOB WAS REMOVING UNSUITABLE MATERIAL FROM A PORTION OF THE ROADBED WHEN HE TORE A 30" X 3" HOLE IN THE TOP OF A 4" PE MAIN. THE ONE-WAY FEED MAIN WAS SQUEEZED OFF ON THE DOWNSTREAMSIDE OF THE BREAK, THEN THE UPSTREAM SIDE, AFTER GAUGES INDICATED NO PRESSURE REMAINED IN THE SYSTEM. THE RESULT WAS A LOSS OF SERVICE TO 1427 CUSTOMERS.THE MAIN WAS REPAIRED BY 18:30, 9/16/96 AND ALL AFFECTED METERS WERE SHUT OFF AND LOCKED BY 03:00 AM, 9/17/96. GAS WAS REINTRODUCED INTO THE SYSTEM AND RELIGHTS BEGAN IMMEDIATELY, UTILIZING EMPLOYEE'S STATIONED THROUGHOUT THE COMPANY THAT HAVE BEEN QUALIFIED TO PERFORM LIGHT-UPS. RESTORATION OF SERVICE WASCOMPLETED TO ALL AVAILABLE CUSTOMERS BY 23:45, 9/17/96. THE ONE-CALL LOCATION CENTER HAD BEEN NOTIFIED OF THE EXCAVATION WORK AND THE GAS MAIN WAS MARKEDON 9/9 AND 9/10/96 IN THE AREA OF DAMAGE. IT DID NOT APPEAR THAT THE MAIN WAS POT-HOLED BY HAND OR THE LOCATION MARKS MAINTAINED BY THE EXCAVATING CONTRACTOR. PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious. PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE. PHMSA indexed costs: $100,000 reported total cost, $71,973.217 in 1984 dollars, $177,247.882 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: - Source ID: `phmsa-pipeline-incidents` - SHA-256: `2ccfd20e54b56a0de91d5995ee57bd8be854c37dfb9558c92729869d28909a47` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z - Exported: 2026-08-25T13:15:31.860Z - Document slug: `phmsa-incident-3d9521607cd57b1bad5220f6` ### Source metadata ```json { "recordKind": "pipeline_incident", "datasetType": "gas_distribution", "datasetLabel": "Gas distribution", "datasetPeriod": "mid 1984 to February 2004", "report": { "number": "19960152", "supplementalNumber": null, "type": null, "receivedDate": "1996-10-21", "receivedDateRaw": "19961021" }, "operator": { "id": "22189", "name": "WASHINGTON NATURAL GAS CO" }, "incident": { "date": "1996-09-16", "dateRaw": "19960916" }, "location": { "city": "MUKILTEO", "county": "KING", "state": "WA", "postalCode": "98275", "latitude": null, "longitude": null, "type": null, "details": {}, "facilityName": null }, "cause": { "category": "DAMAGE BY OUTSIDE FORCES", "details": { "NARRATIVE": "THIS WAS AN ON-GOING JOB THAT HAD BEEN ONE-CALLED SEVERAL TIMES. THE GAS MAIN WAS MARKED CORRECTLY JUST 6 DAYS PRIOR TO THE OCCURENCE OF THE DAMAGE. A CONTRACTOR USING A BULLDOZER ON A STREET IMPROVEMENT JOB WAS REMOVING UNSUITABLE MATERIAL FROM A PORTION OF THE ROADBED WHEN HE TORE A 30\" X 3\" HOLE IN THE TOP OF A 4\" PE MAIN. THE ONE-WAY FEED MAIN WAS SQUEEZED OFF ON THE DOWNSTREAMSIDE OF THE BREAK, THEN THE UPSTREAM SIDE, AFTER GAUGES INDICATED NO PRESSURE REMAINED IN THE SYSTEM. THE RESULT WAS A LOSS OF SERVICE TO 1427 CUSTOMERS.THE MAIN WAS REPAIRED BY 18:30, 9/16/96 AND ALL AFFECTED METERS WERE SHUT OFF AND LOCKED BY 03:00 AM, 9/17/96. GAS WAS REINTRODUCED INTO THE SYSTEM AND RELIGHTS BEGAN IMMEDIATELY, UTILIZING EMPLOYEE'S STATIONED THROUGHOUT THE COMPANY THAT HAVE BEEN QUALIFIED TO PERFORM LIGHT-UPS. RESTORATION OF SERVICE WASCOMPLETED TO ALL AVAILABLE CUSTOMERS BY 23:45, 9/17/96. THE ONE-CALL LOCATION CENTER HAD BEEN NOTIFIED OF THE EXCAVATION WORK AND THE GAS MAIN WAS MARKEDON 9/9 AND 9/10/96 IN THE AREA OF DAMAGE. IT DID NOT APPEAR THAT THE MAIN WAS POT-HOLED BY HAND OR THE LOCATION MARKS MAINTAINED BY THE EXCAVATING CONTRACTOR." } }, "consequences": { "fatalities": 0, "injuries": 0, "commodity": null, "release": null, "propertyDamage": 100000, "estimatedOperatorCost": null, "estimatedEmergencyCost": null, "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null, "ignition": null, "explosion": null, "evacuated": null, "raw": { "FAT": "0", "INJ": "0", "PRPTY": "100000" } }, "provenance": { "viewId": "27nc-rsge", "viewUrl": "https://data.transportation.gov/api/views/27nc-rsge", "assetId": "7ccf83c5-a778-4c51-ba2d-a9a84e221c7b", "archiveFilename": "Gas Distribution Incident Data - mid 1984 to February 2004.zip", "archiveSha256": "faf20de4eb8fe04e84e6ec6704517de9f4f59755ba8dae865881822ffe5d336f", "memberPath": "incident_gas_distribution_mid1984_feb2004.txt", "memberSha256": "160b048435c0ab62f776d36b69451902e8337a5cdaa7d28aa5247166783cfe65", "rowNumber": 1902, "rowSha256": "037c9ee3de8d8b82c1bd78f99f2abd4cb96941a0213607607aa670dc73a9ddc5" }, "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": true, "serious": false }, "standardizedCause": { "sevenCategory": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE", "sevenSubcategory": "THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE", "eightCategory": null, "eightSubcategory": null }, "costs": { "reported": 100000, "in1984Dollars": 71973.2167258814, "currentYearDollars": 177247.881934954 }, "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": "gd1986tofeb2004.xlsx", "sheet": "gd1986tofeb2004", "rowNumber": 1496, "rowSha256": "e24b3883fbc17293b94c8bbdbfab9fba8522069009ee4ef5723e7b6d50d85bab" } }, "jurisdiction": "US", "operatorName": "WASHINGTON NATURAL GAS CO" } ```