# NORTHERN NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-11-10 **Citation:** PHMSA Report 20150145 **Type / status:** incident / historical **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** 2015-11-10 **Published:** 2015-12-09 Gas transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, SALINE County, NE. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 4000 NATURAL GAS released, $5,000 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, SALINE County, NE. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 4000 NATURAL GAS released, $5,000 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: 20150145. Operator ID: 13750. Reported incident date: 11/10/2015 8:30. Location detail: MP 35.53 Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY Cause detail: NOTIFICATION ISSUE Cause detail: NO NOTIFICATION MADE TO THE ONE-CALL CENTER/811 Cause detail: ON NOVEMBER 10, 2015 AT APPROXIMATELY 08:30 THE PIPELINE WAS STRUCK AND DAMAGED BY A DITCH WITCH RT95 CHAIN TYPE TRENCHER. THE OPERATOR OF THE EQUIPMENT IMMEDIATELY SHUT OFF THE TRENCHER, LEFT IT IN PLACE AGAINST THE PIPELINE, AND RETREATED TO SAFETY. THERE WAS NO FIRE, NO INJURIES AND NO CASUALTIES. NO ONE WAS EVACUATED FROM THEIR HOME. THE OPERATOR OF THE TRENCHER, JAQS IRRIGATION AND TRENCHING, WAS DOING SUBCONTRACT WORK FOR MUSSMAN EXCAVATING. NEITHER CONTRACTOR MADE THE REQUIRED ONE-CALL. THE PIPELINE IS A 10-INCH OPERATING AT ABOUT 500 PSI AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. THE LINE HIT WAS THE ONLY DAMAGE. THE PIPELINE WAS 42-INCHES DEEP. THE TRENCHER TOOTH CAUSED A 1-INCH BY 2-INCH PUNCTURE. THE DAMAGED SECTION WAS REPLACED WITH A 10-FOOT LENGTH OF NEW PIPE. ABOUT 5,000 MCF OF NATURAL GAS WAS RELEASED DUE TO THE DAMAGE AND DURING REPAIRS. THERE WERE NO SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS BECAUSE THE COMPANY USED VOLUME BOTTLE TRAILERS TO PROVIDE TEMPORARY SERVICE TO THE TOWN OF WESTERN, NE. PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious. PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE. PHMSA indexed costs: $118,847 reported total cost, $66,388.052 in 1984 dollars, $145,288.086 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: `ef4b281981a67286fa7df208c036da92b5cb15dac154c6f9741f1577de7e3658` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z - Exported: 2026-08-25T05:21:11.429Z - Document slug: `phmsa-incident-4d63df496782a7f1c09a03c3` ### Source metadata ```json { "recordKind": "pipeline_incident", "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering", "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering", "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present", "report": { "number": "20150145", "supplementalNumber": "17064", "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL", "receivedDate": "2015-12-09", "receivedDateRaw": "12/9/2015" }, "operator": { "id": "13750", "name": "NORTHERN NATURAL GAS CO" }, "incident": { "date": "2015-11-10", "dateRaw": "11/10/2015 8:30" }, "location": { "city": "Not Within a Municipality", "county": "SALINE", "state": "NE", "postalCode": "38453", "latitude": 40.453494, "longitude": -97.316222, "type": "PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAY", "details": { "DESIGNATED_NAME": "MP 35.53" }, "facilityName": "KANSAS-NEBRASKA 10-INCH" }, "cause": { "category": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE", "details": { "CAUSE_DETAILS": "EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY", "ROOT_CAUSE_CATEGORY": "NOTIFICATION ISSUE", "ROOT_CAUSE_TYPE": "NO NOTIFICATION MADE TO THE ONE-CALL CENTER/811", "NARRATIVE": "ON NOVEMBER 10, 2015 AT APPROXIMATELY 08:30 THE PIPELINE WAS STRUCK AND DAMAGED BY A DITCH WITCH RT95 CHAIN TYPE TRENCHER. THE OPERATOR OF THE EQUIPMENT IMMEDIATELY SHUT OFF THE TRENCHER, LEFT IT IN PLACE AGAINST THE PIPELINE, AND RETREATED TO SAFETY. THERE WAS NO FIRE, NO INJURIES AND NO CASUALTIES. NO ONE WAS EVACUATED FROM THEIR HOME. THE OPERATOR OF THE TRENCHER, JAQS IRRIGATION AND TRENCHING, WAS DOING SUBCONTRACT WORK FOR MUSSMAN EXCAVATING. NEITHER CONTRACTOR MADE THE REQUIRED ONE-CALL. THE PIPELINE IS A 10-INCH OPERATING AT ABOUT 500 PSI AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. THE LINE HIT WAS THE ONLY DAMAGE. THE PIPELINE WAS 42-INCHES DEEP. THE TRENCHER TOOTH CAUSED A 1-INCH BY 2-INCH PUNCTURE. THE DAMAGED SECTION WAS REPLACED WITH A 10-FOOT LENGTH OF NEW PIPE. ABOUT 5,000 MCF OF NATURAL GAS WAS RELEASED DUE TO THE DAMAGE AND DURING REPAIRS. THERE WERE NO SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS BECAUSE THE COMPANY USED VOLUME BOTTLE TRAILERS TO PROVIDE TEMPORARY SERVICE TO THE TOWN OF WESTERN, NE." } }, "consequences": { "fatalities": 0, "injuries": 0, "commodity": "NATURAL GAS", "release": "4000", "propertyDamage": 5000, "estimatedOperatorCost": 0, "estimatedEmergencyCost": 97947, "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null, "ignition": "NO", "explosion": "NO", "evacuated": 0, "raw": { "FATAL": "0", "INJURE": "0", "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "4000", "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "5000", "PRPTY": "118847" } }, "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": 1252, "rowSha256": "dd8ecef4070d0ac3ee52c4b98d41666c4026f62ebec16609537e13160e618074" }, "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": 118847, "in1984Dollars": 66388.05242216228, "currentYearDollars": 145288.08629259127 }, "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": 743, "rowSha256": "3ad9a635f2eb7e6ff50258ff625e24707ef087c9d07646e307dd6ac56b57ce17" } }, "jurisdiction": "US", "operatorName": "NORTHERN NATURAL GAS CO" } ```