# PEOPLES NATURAL GAS COMPANY LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2016-12-26

**Citation:** PHMSA Report 20170007  
**Type / status:** incident / historical  
**Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration  
**Effective:** 2016-12-26  
**Published:** 2017-01-25

Gas transmission and gathering incident in COWANSHANNOCK, ARMSTRONG County, PA. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 69.6 NATURAL GAS released, $400,000 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 COWANSHANNOCK, ARMSTRONG County, PA. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 69.6 NATURAL GAS released, $400,000 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: 20170007.

Operator ID: 15350.

Reported incident date: 12/26/2016 13:54.

Location detail: G259 0+00

Cause detail: THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE

Cause detail: THERE WAS A FIRE AT THE VILLAGE COMPRESSOR STATION AT APPROXIMATELY 1:55 PM ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016. NO EMPLOYEES WERE IN THE COMPRESSOR STATION AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. NO ONE WAS INJURED. THE COMPRESSOR STATION AND THE COMPRESSOR ENGINE WERE DESTROYED. CURRENTLY, PEOPLES NATURAL GAS IS CONDUCTING A ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS BY AN INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY INVESTIGATOR. PLANS ARE BEING MADE TO REMOVE WHAT IS LEFT OF THE EXISTING STRUCTURE AND THEN REBUILD THE STRUCTURE AND REPLACE THE ENGINE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $406,816 reported total cost, $202,500.14 in 1984 dollars, $498,483.852 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: `b07feeee6b89ae8c7d72e45a910f1627f44f4849d57e080394d28055c9a2d013`
- Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z
- Exported: 2026-08-27T07:27:56.334Z
- Document slug: `phmsa-incident-50909e8a5f499aa7890830f4`

### Source metadata

```json
{
  "recordKind": "pipeline_incident",
  "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering",
  "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering",
  "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present",
  "report": {
    "number": "20170007",
    "supplementalNumber": "31563",
    "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL",
    "receivedDate": "2017-01-25",
    "receivedDateRaw": "1/25/2017"
  },
  "operator": {
    "id": "15350",
    "name": "PEOPLES NATURAL GAS COMPANY LLC"
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2016-12-26",
    "dateRaw": "12/26/2016 13:54"
  },
  "location": {
    "city": "COWANSHANNOCK",
    "county": "ARMSTRONG",
    "state": "PA",
    "postalCode": "16201",
    "latitude": 40.801407,
    "longitude": -79.351463,
    "type": "OPERATOR-CONTROLLED PROPERTY",
    "details": {
      "DESIGNATED_NAME": "G259 0+00"
    },
    "facilityName": "ST-430 VILLAGE COMPRESSOR"
  },
  "cause": {
    "category": "EQUIPMENT FAILURE",
    "details": {
      "CAUSE_DETAILS": "THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE",
      "NARRATIVE": "THERE WAS A FIRE AT THE VILLAGE COMPRESSOR STATION AT APPROXIMATELY 1:55 PM ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016. NO EMPLOYEES WERE IN THE COMPRESSOR STATION AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. NO ONE WAS INJURED. THE COMPRESSOR STATION AND THE COMPRESSOR ENGINE WERE DESTROYED. CURRENTLY, PEOPLES NATURAL GAS IS CONDUCTING A ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS BY AN INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY INVESTIGATOR. PLANS ARE BEING MADE TO REMOVE WHAT IS LEFT OF THE EXISTING STRUCTURE AND THEN REBUILD THE STRUCTURE AND REPLACE THE ENGINE."
    }
  },
  "consequences": {
    "fatalities": 0,
    "injuries": 0,
    "commodity": "NATURAL GAS",
    "release": "69.6",
    "propertyDamage": 400000,
    "estimatedOperatorCost": 0,
    "estimatedEmergencyCost": 6655,
    "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null,
    "ignition": "YES",
    "explosion": "NO",
    "evacuated": 0,
    "raw": {
      "FATAL": "0",
      "INJURE": "0",
      "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "69.6",
      "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "400000",
      "PRPTY": "406816"
    }
  },
  "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": 1141,
    "rowSha256": "804764cb41a6efb16b39f2f9052bb84d630bd5995b65c141b4afc88df64964fc"
  },
  "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": "MATERIAL/WELD/EQUIP FAILURE",
      "sevenSubcategory": "THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE",
      "eightCategory": "EQUIPMENT FAILURE",
      "eightSubcategory": "THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE"
    },
    "costs": {
      "reported": 406816,
      "in1984Dollars": 202500.1402974382,
      "currentYearDollars": 498483.85210619925
    },
    "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": 854,
      "rowSha256": "20362355babc4af24994ca7cc3f0ded04cc859879813a5c411b1488150772f73"
    }
  },
  "jurisdiction": "US",
  "operatorName": "PEOPLES NATURAL GAS COMPANY LLC"
}
```