# TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-12-21 **Citation:** PHMSA Report 20160004 **Type / status:** incident / historical **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** 2015-12-21 **Published:** 2016-01-15 Gas transmission and gathering incident in WEST WINFIELD, HERKIMER County, NY. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 5780 NATURAL GAS released, $1,500 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 WEST WINFIELD, HERKIMER County, NY. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 5780 NATURAL GAS released, $1,500 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: 20160004. Operator ID: 19160. Reported incident date: 12/21/2015 8:25. Location detail: STATION 245 Cause detail: FAILURE OF EQUIPMENT BODY (EXCEPT COMPRESSOR), VESSEL PLATE, OR OTHER MATERIAL Cause detail: ON 12/21/2015 AT 8:25 AM (LOCAL TIME)TENNESSE GAS PIPELINE EXPERIENCED AN ESD AT COMPRESSOR STATION 245 IN WEST WINFIELD, NY. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT STATION 245 C-BUILDING INITIATED A FUEL GAS SHUTDOWN WHEN A RUPTURE DISC ACTIVATED DURING MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES ON THE BOILER WATER HEATING SYSTEM. SLIGHT GAS PRESSURE INADVERTENTLY CHARGED THE RED ESD PIPING DUE TO AN IMPROPERLY RATED 1/2 INCH CHECK VALVE. THIS CAUSED THE 8 INCH SUCTION ESD BLOW OFF VALVE TO OPEN, BUT DID NOT SUPPLY ENOUGH PRESSURE TO CLOSE THE SIDE VALVES. A&B BUILDINGS ALSO SHUT DOWN DUE TO FUEL LOSS WHEN THE FUEL VALVE BLOCKED AND BLED. THERE WAS AN UNINTENTIONAL RELEASE OF 5,780 MCF OF NATURAL GAS. PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious. PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — FAILURE OF EQUIPMENT BODY. PHMSA indexed costs: $12,482 reported total cost, $10,935.341 in 1984 dollars, $14,356.158 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: `7657e769edf907584f41bb84bf07889c6528a2229965640981d3ba7459190f7d` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z - Exported: 2026-08-23T17:00:51.943Z - Document slug: `phmsa-incident-4644b0bb014dbc9f19716b09` ### Source metadata ```json { "recordKind": "pipeline_incident", "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering", "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering", "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present", "report": { "number": "20160004", "supplementalNumber": "17082", "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL", "receivedDate": "2016-01-15", "receivedDateRaw": "1/15/2016" }, "operator": { "id": "19160", "name": "TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY" }, "incident": { "date": "2015-12-21", "dateRaw": "12/21/2015 8:25" }, "location": { "city": "WEST WINFIELD", "county": "HERKIMER", "state": "NY", "postalCode": "13491", "latitude": 42.8744771, "longitude": -75.1673477, "type": "OPERATOR-CONTROLLED PROPERTY", "details": { "DESIGNATED_NAME": "STATION 245" }, "facilityName": "TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPRESSOR STATION 245" }, "cause": { "category": "EQUIPMENT FAILURE", "details": { "CAUSE_DETAILS": "FAILURE OF EQUIPMENT BODY (EXCEPT COMPRESSOR), VESSEL PLATE, OR OTHER MATERIAL", "NARRATIVE": "ON 12/21/2015 AT 8:25 AM (LOCAL TIME)TENNESSE GAS PIPELINE EXPERIENCED AN ESD AT COMPRESSOR STATION 245 IN WEST WINFIELD, NY. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT STATION 245 C-BUILDING INITIATED A FUEL GAS SHUTDOWN WHEN A RUPTURE DISC ACTIVATED DURING MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES ON THE BOILER WATER HEATING SYSTEM. SLIGHT GAS PRESSURE INADVERTENTLY CHARGED THE RED ESD PIPING DUE TO AN IMPROPERLY RATED 1/2 INCH CHECK VALVE. THIS CAUSED THE 8 INCH SUCTION ESD BLOW OFF VALVE TO OPEN, BUT DID NOT SUPPLY ENOUGH PRESSURE TO CLOSE THE SIDE VALVES. A&B BUILDINGS ALSO SHUT DOWN DUE TO FUEL LOSS WHEN THE FUEL VALVE BLOCKED AND BLED. THERE WAS AN UNINTENTIONAL RELEASE OF 5,780 MCF OF NATURAL GAS." } }, "consequences": { "fatalities": 0, "injuries": 0, "commodity": "NATURAL GAS", "release": "5780", "propertyDamage": 1500, "estimatedOperatorCost": 0, "estimatedEmergencyCost": 0, "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null, "ignition": "NO", "explosion": "NO", "evacuated": 0, "raw": { "FATAL": "0", "INJURE": "0", "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "5780", "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "1500", "PRPTY": "12482" } }, "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": 1240, "rowSha256": "ed1532d16e6fc8f90ca50f052f51284b90ea2271bcd8209ee342c355f04e2923" }, "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": "FAILURE OF EQUIPMENT BODY", "eightCategory": "EQUIPMENT FAILURE", "eightSubcategory": "FAILURE OF EQUIPMENT BODY" }, "costs": { "reported": 12482, "in1984Dollars": 10935.34061370477, "currentYearDollars": 14356.15771365661 }, "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": 755, "rowSha256": "f7d79e36bc82e227cab45e2d5516b67acd91012373a761620f65c6a3933e195e" } }, "jurisdiction": "US", "operatorName": "TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY" } ```