# NORTHERN NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2016-04-26 **Citation:** PHMSA Report 20160040 **Type / status:** incident / historical **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** 2016-04-26 **Published:** 2016-05-23 Gas transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, EAU CLAIRE County, WI. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 6172 NATURAL GAS released, $80,000 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 transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, EAU CLAIRE County, WI. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 6172 NATURAL GAS released, $80,000 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: 20160040. Operator ID: 13750. Reported incident date: 4/26/2016 15:35. Location detail: 18.04 Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY Cause detail: EXCAVATION ISSUE Cause detail: IMPROPER BACKFILLING PRACTICES Cause detail: ON APRIL 26, 2016, NORTHLAND EXCAVATION, A THIRD PARTY EXCAVATOR, STRUCK THE AUGUSTA BRANCH LINE (WIB19901) WITH A DEEP RIPPER ATTACHED TO A BULLDOZER. ALTHOUGH A ONE-CALL TICKET HAD BEEN MADE, IT WAS NOT SCHEDULED TO CLEAR UNTIL APRIL 28, 2016, AT 07:49. NORTHERN HAD PLANS TO LOCATE THE LINE ON APRIL 27, 2016. WISCONSIN HAS A 3-DAY WAIT PERIOD FOR ONE-CALL TICKETS. THE AUGUSTA #1 TBS HAS AN ALTERNATIVE FEED WITH VIKING GAS TRANSMISSION. WE ENERGIES SWITCHED OVER AND MAINTAINED SERVICE. NORTHERN STOPPLED THE AUGUSTA 3-INCH BRANCH LINE UPSTREAM OF THE FAILURE SITE AND REPAIRED THE DAMAGED SECTION OF THE LINE. THE DAMAGED SECTION WAS SENT TO A LABORATORY FOR ANALYSIS. PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious. PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE. PHMSA indexed costs: $102,800 reported total cost, $57,839.84 in 1984 dollars, $126,927.954 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: `afcb578f28227d4b91621f250942d90ab0fb0907c3e7244649884b2f976c90e8` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z - Exported: 2026-08-24T04:45:42.501Z - Document slug: `phmsa-incident-3ec88d235ac727e2523edafe` ### Source metadata ```json { "recordKind": "pipeline_incident", "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering", "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering", "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present", "report": { "number": "20160040", "supplementalNumber": "17155", "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL", "receivedDate": "2016-05-23", "receivedDateRaw": "5/23/2016" }, "operator": { "id": "13750", "name": "NORTHERN NATURAL GAS CO" }, "incident": { "date": "2016-04-26", "dateRaw": "4/26/2016 15:35" }, "location": { "city": "Not Within a Municipality", "county": "EAU CLAIRE", "state": "WI", "postalCode": "54722", "latitude": 44.6528, "longitude": -91.15295, "type": "PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAY", "details": { "DESIGNATED_NAME": "18.04" }, "facilityName": "AUGUSTA WI 3-INCH BRANCH LINE" }, "cause": { "category": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE", "details": { "CAUSE_DETAILS": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY", "ROOT_CAUSE_CATEGORY": "EXCAVATION ISSUE", "ROOT_CAUSE_TYPE": "IMPROPER BACKFILLING PRACTICES", "NARRATIVE": "ON APRIL 26, 2016, NORTHLAND EXCAVATION, A THIRD PARTY EXCAVATOR, STRUCK THE AUGUSTA BRANCH LINE (WIB19901) WITH A DEEP RIPPER ATTACHED TO A BULLDOZER. ALTHOUGH A ONE-CALL TICKET HAD BEEN MADE, IT WAS NOT SCHEDULED TO CLEAR UNTIL APRIL 28, 2016, AT 07:49. NORTHERN HAD PLANS TO LOCATE THE LINE ON APRIL 27, 2016. WISCONSIN HAS A 3-DAY WAIT PERIOD FOR ONE-CALL TICKETS. THE AUGUSTA #1 TBS HAS AN ALTERNATIVE FEED WITH VIKING GAS TRANSMISSION. WE ENERGIES SWITCHED OVER AND MAINTAINED SERVICE. NORTHERN STOPPLED THE AUGUSTA 3-INCH BRANCH LINE UPSTREAM OF THE FAILURE SITE AND REPAIRED THE DAMAGED SECTION OF THE LINE. THE DAMAGED SECTION WAS SENT TO A LABORATORY FOR ANALYSIS." } }, "consequences": { "fatalities": 0, "injuries": 0, "commodity": "NATURAL GAS", "release": "6172", "propertyDamage": 80000, "estimatedOperatorCost": 1000, "estimatedEmergencyCost": 10000, "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null, "ignition": "NO", "explosion": "NO", "evacuated": 0, "raw": { "FATAL": "0", "INJURE": "0", "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "6172", "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "80000", "PRPTY": "102800" } }, "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": 1205, "rowSha256": "bac5fc24c0380d9aa982ed35fccd5a6b13b7432def4f97c1957ba025e42203f7" }, "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": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE", "eightSubcategory": "THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE" }, "costs": { "reported": 102800, "in1984Dollars": 57839.83957859211, "currentYearDollars": 126927.95422729402 }, "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": 791, "rowSha256": "d086f6a9e43cd1fe1abc4ce59df34d7fb5d7b9e995cb542f3806e4571799aade" } }, "jurisdiction": "US", "operatorName": "NORTHERN NATURAL GAS CO" } ```