# BOARDWALK STORAGE COMPANY, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2018-01-20

**Citation:** PHMSA Report 20180025  
**Type / status:** incident / historical  
**Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration  
**Effective:** 2018-01-20  
**Published:** 2018-02-09

Gas transmission and gathering incident in PLAQUEMINE, IBERVILLE County, LA. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 104 NATURAL GAS released, $1,056,806 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 PLAQUEMINE, IBERVILLE County, LA. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 104 NATURAL GAS released, $1,056,806 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: 20180025.

Operator ID: 39210.

Reported incident date: 1/20/2018 12:59.

Location detail: 804-0+00

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: BOARDWALK STORAGE COMPANY'S CHOCTAW COMPRESSOR NO. 1 EXPERIENCED A FAILURE. SCADA INDICATED A FUSIBLE LOOP FIRE DETECTION SHUTDOWN AND ESD. THE ROOT CAUSE WAS DETERMINED TO BE DEFECTIVE PLC COMMUNICATIONS. THE COMMUNICATION NETWORK MISTAKENLY SIGNALED FOR THE LUBE OIL PUMPS AND AIR COMPRESSORS TO SHUTDOWN. IT IS ALSO BELIEVED THE SUCTION VALVE WAS COMMANDED TO CLOSE BUT THIS CANNOT BE VERIFIED. THE COMMAND TO SHUTDOWN THE MOTOR WAS NEVER RECEIVED BY THE MOTOR SWITCHGEAR. THE RESULT WAS THE LOSS OF LUBE OIL AND THE MOTOR CONTINUED TO RUN. 8-31-18 UPDATED COSTS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $1,057,296 reported total cost, $505,191.047 in 1984 dollars, $1,243,795.668 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: `ad0b6a48d82a1cc998e6fd9588cc37c75e9476be442c3c0f89afa1a3aa08bfe7`
- Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z
- Exported: 2026-08-26T12:06:21.419Z
- Document slug: `phmsa-incident-81cc08959c8ff5a58479c289`

### Source metadata

```json
{
  "recordKind": "pipeline_incident",
  "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering",
  "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering",
  "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present",
  "report": {
    "number": "20180025",
    "supplementalNumber": "30884",
    "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL",
    "receivedDate": "2018-02-09",
    "receivedDateRaw": "2/9/2018"
  },
  "operator": {
    "id": "39210",
    "name": "BOARDWALK STORAGE COMPANY, LLC"
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2018-01-20",
    "dateRaw": "1/20/2018 12:59"
  },
  "location": {
    "city": "PLAQUEMINE",
    "county": "IBERVILLE",
    "state": "LA",
    "postalCode": "70427",
    "latitude": 30.310689,
    "longitude": -91.307552,
    "type": "OPERATOR-CONTROLLED PROPERTY",
    "details": {
      "DESIGNATED_NAME": "804-0+00"
    },
    "facilityName": "CHOCTAW BSC COMPRESSOR STATION"
  },
  "cause": {
    "category": "EQUIPMENT FAILURE",
    "details": {
      "CAUSE_DETAILS": "MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT",
      "NARRATIVE": "BOARDWALK STORAGE COMPANY'S CHOCTAW COMPRESSOR NO. 1 EXPERIENCED A FAILURE. SCADA INDICATED A FUSIBLE LOOP FIRE DETECTION SHUTDOWN AND ESD. THE ROOT CAUSE WAS DETERMINED TO BE DEFECTIVE PLC COMMUNICATIONS. THE COMMUNICATION NETWORK MISTAKENLY SIGNALED FOR THE LUBE OIL PUMPS AND AIR COMPRESSORS TO SHUTDOWN. IT IS ALSO BELIEVED THE SUCTION VALVE WAS COMMANDED TO CLOSE BUT THIS CANNOT BE VERIFIED. THE COMMAND TO SHUTDOWN THE MOTOR WAS NEVER RECEIVED BY THE MOTOR SWITCHGEAR. THE RESULT WAS THE LOSS OF LUBE OIL AND THE MOTOR CONTINUED TO RUN. 8-31-18 UPDATED COSTS."
    }
  },
  "consequences": {
    "fatalities": 0,
    "injuries": 0,
    "commodity": "NATURAL GAS",
    "release": "104",
    "propertyDamage": 1056806,
    "estimatedOperatorCost": 0,
    "estimatedEmergencyCost": 200,
    "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null,
    "ignition": "YES",
    "explosion": "NO",
    "evacuated": 0,
    "raw": {
      "FATAL": "0",
      "INJURE": "0",
      "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "104",
      "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "1056806",
      "PRPTY": "1057296"
    }
  },
  "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": 1004,
    "rowSha256": "4fb9437b85b729b91f4a354c7c6e9e08fed4cd9cde2bf1181e2498004c919c6c"
  },
  "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": "MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT",
      "eightCategory": "EQUIPMENT FAILURE",
      "eightSubcategory": "MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT"
    },
    "costs": {
      "reported": 1057296,
      "in1984Dollars": 505191.0470257496,
      "currentYearDollars": 1243795.6680723273
    },
    "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": 992,
      "rowSha256": "c0003d07c01973451d17745416f9f73475f2c321c2ffbc0c691947bd037849ed"
    }
  },
  "jurisdiction": "US",
  "operatorName": "BOARDWALK STORAGE COMPANY, LLC"
}
```
