# PIEDMONT NATURAL GAS CO INC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2016-08-02

**Citation:** PHMSA Report 20160089  
**Type / status:** incident / historical  
**Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration  
**Effective:** 2016-08-02  
**Published:** 2016-11-09

Gas transmission and gathering incident in SAINT PAULS, ROBESON County, NC. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1272.88 NATURAL GAS released, $10,909 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 SAINT PAULS, ROBESON County, NC. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1272.88 NATURAL GAS released, $10,909 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: 20160089.

Operator ID: 15518.

Reported incident date: 8/2/2016 12:22.

Location detail: 36015.6518382

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY

Cause detail: NOTIFICATION ISSUE

Cause detail: NO NOTIFICATION MADE TO THE ONE-CALL CENTER/811

Cause detail: WHILE GRADING A DRIVEWAY FOR PAVING, A THIRD-PARTY CONTRACTOR HIT AND PUNCTURED THE 3" TRANSMISSION LINE. ONE BUSINESS WAS EVACUATED, BUT NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES AFFECTED IS UNKNOWN. PRIOR NOTIFICATION OF INCIDENT WAS NOT MADE AS IT WAS NOT THOUGHT TO BE REPORTABLE. IT WAS NOT UNTIL FINAL BILLS FROM CONTRACTORS FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND REPAIR WERE RECEIVED THAT IT WAS DETERMINED TO BE REPORTABLE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $100,949 reported total cost, $58,145.056 in 1984 dollars, $124,837.169 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: `6480e407a23ae10676b8ecad5edba385b3049b24f673667d3550dd9c627589a4`
- Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z
- Exported: 2026-08-25T08:37:01.675Z
- Document slug: `phmsa-incident-e13d9be08cc7a6b3accab913`

### Source metadata

```json
{
  "recordKind": "pipeline_incident",
  "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering",
  "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering",
  "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present",
  "report": {
    "number": "20160089",
    "supplementalNumber": "17217",
    "type": "ORIGINAL FINAL",
    "receivedDate": "2016-11-09",
    "receivedDateRaw": "11/9/2016"
  },
  "operator": {
    "id": "15518",
    "name": "PIEDMONT NATURAL GAS CO INC"
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2016-08-02",
    "dateRaw": "8/2/2016 12:22"
  },
  "location": {
    "city": "SAINT PAULS",
    "county": "ROBESON",
    "state": "NC",
    "postalCode": "28384",
    "latitude": 34.82169472,
    "longitude": -79.01103906,
    "type": "PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAY",
    "details": {
      "DESIGNATED_NAME": "36015.6518382"
    },
    "facilityName": "LINE 33"
  },
  "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": "WHILE GRADING A DRIVEWAY FOR PAVING, A THIRD-PARTY CONTRACTOR HIT AND PUNCTURED THE 3\" TRANSMISSION LINE. ONE BUSINESS WAS EVACUATED, BUT NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES AFFECTED IS UNKNOWN. PRIOR NOTIFICATION OF INCIDENT WAS NOT MADE AS IT WAS NOT THOUGHT TO BE REPORTABLE. IT WAS NOT UNTIL FINAL BILLS FROM CONTRACTORS FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND REPAIR WERE RECEIVED THAT IT WAS DETERMINED TO BE REPORTABLE."
    }
  },
  "consequences": {
    "fatalities": 0,
    "injuries": 0,
    "commodity": "NATURAL GAS",
    "release": "1272.88",
    "propertyDamage": 10909,
    "estimatedOperatorCost": 0,
    "estimatedEmergencyCost": 76078,
    "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null,
    "ignition": "NO",
    "explosion": "NO",
    "evacuated": 0,
    "raw": {
      "FATAL": "0",
      "INJURE": "0",
      "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "1272.88",
      "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "10909",
      "PRPTY": "100949"
    }
  },
  "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": 1177,
    "rowSha256": "0a179c025c61634bae59f60c984dbc630421b1420eb4ee64b4545aa26b314f66"
  },
  "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": 100949,
      "in1984Dollars": 58145.05564207014,
      "currentYearDollars": 124837.16933950804
    },
    "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": 840,
      "rowSha256": "c78569acb4a351367e2eb2a49febddc0588f44f41a36ad9ac978ffdeb428dc74"
    }
  },
  "jurisdiction": "US",
  "operatorName": "PIEDMONT NATURAL GAS CO INC"
}
```