# TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2018-09-20 **Citation:** PHMSA Report 20180109 **Type / status:** incident / historical **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** 2018-09-20 **Published:** 2018-11-08 Gas transmission and gathering incident in OLD BRIDGE, MIDDLESEX County, NJ. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 NATURAL GAS released, $200,000 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 OLD BRIDGE, MIDDLESEX County, NJ. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 NATURAL GAS released, $200,000 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: 20180109. Operator ID: 19570. Reported incident date: 9/20/2018 9:04. Location detail: 99+29 Cause detail: VALVE LEFT OR PLACED IN WRONG POSITION, BUT NOT RESULTING IN AN OVERPRESSURE Cause detail: AT APPROXIMATELY 8:04 AM CST ON 09/20/2018, UNIT #3 @ COMPRESSOR STA 207 WAS SCHEDULED FOR AN AUTOMATIC BLOW DOWN DUE TO AN UPCOMING PROJECT TO REMOVE THE INLET STRAINER. WHEN UNIT #3'S BLOWDOWN VALVE OPENED, GAS ENTERED THE CHARCOAL FILLED DEODORIZER AND WOULD NORMALLY FLOW UP AND OUT OF THE TOP OF THE STACK ABOVE THE BUILDING ROOFLINE TO ATMOSPHERE. DUE TO A 4" DRAIN LINE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEODORIZER VESSEL IN THE OPEN POSITION, THE VENTING GAS AND CHARCOAL WERE ABLE TO ENTER INTO THE DRAIN SYSTEM OF COMPRESSOR BUILDINGS 1&2. THIS IN TURN ACTIVATED BOTH BUILDINGS EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN (ESD) SYSTEMS AS DESIGNED AT 20% LEL (ESD) AND 40% LEL (ESD 2). THE STATION WAS SHUT DOWN IN A SAFE STATE AND THE BUILDING'S FANS EVACUATED THE GAS. WILLIAMS' PERSONNEL RESPONDED TO THE SITE AND INITIATED THE STATIONS EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN WITH THE LOCAL EMERGENCY RESPONDERS. PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious. PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — INCORRECT VALVE POSITION. PHMSA indexed costs: $231,540 reported total cost, $110,850.437 in 1984 dollars, $272,367.834 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: `b03d9b1cf14258e82aea39b1aa9816feb74142577a7ef754c07837ddbb542c19` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T03:30:32.010Z - Exported: 2026-08-25T18:31:45.782Z - Document slug: `phmsa-incident-f68852e74103ebbdac489b24` ### Source metadata ```json { "recordKind": "pipeline_incident", "datasetType": "gas_transmission_gathering", "datasetLabel": "Gas transmission and gathering", "datasetPeriod": "January 2010 to present", "report": { "number": "20180109", "supplementalNumber": "32128", "type": "SUPPLEMENTAL FINAL", "receivedDate": "2018-11-08", "receivedDateRaw": "11/8/2018" }, "operator": { "id": "19570", "name": "TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE COMPANY" }, "incident": { "date": "2018-09-20", "dateRaw": "9/20/2018 9:04" }, "location": { "city": "OLD BRIDGE", "county": "MIDDLESEX", "state": "NJ", "postalCode": "08859", "latitude": 40.44194, "longitude": -74.31472, "type": "OPERATOR-CONTROLLED PROPERTY", "details": { "DESIGNATED_NAME": "99+29" }, "facilityName": "STATION 207" }, "cause": { "category": "INCORRECT OPERATION", "details": { "CAUSE_DETAILS": "VALVE LEFT OR PLACED IN WRONG POSITION, BUT NOT RESULTING IN AN OVERPRESSURE", "NARRATIVE": "AT APPROXIMATELY 8:04 AM CST ON 09/20/2018, UNIT #3 @ COMPRESSOR STA 207 WAS SCHEDULED FOR AN AUTOMATIC BLOW DOWN DUE TO AN UPCOMING PROJECT TO REMOVE THE INLET STRAINER. WHEN UNIT #3'S BLOWDOWN VALVE OPENED, GAS ENTERED THE CHARCOAL FILLED DEODORIZER AND WOULD NORMALLY FLOW UP AND OUT OF THE TOP OF THE STACK ABOVE THE BUILDING ROOFLINE TO ATMOSPHERE. DUE TO A 4\" DRAIN LINE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEODORIZER VESSEL IN THE OPEN POSITION, THE VENTING GAS AND CHARCOAL WERE ABLE TO ENTER INTO THE DRAIN SYSTEM OF COMPRESSOR BUILDINGS 1&2. THIS IN TURN ACTIVATED BOTH BUILDINGS EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN (ESD) SYSTEMS AS DESIGNED AT 20% LEL (ESD) AND 40% LEL (ESD 2). THE STATION WAS SHUT DOWN IN A SAFE STATE AND THE BUILDING'S FANS EVACUATED THE GAS. WILLIAMS' PERSONNEL RESPONDED TO THE SITE AND INITIATED THE STATIONS EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN WITH THE LOCAL EMERGENCY RESPONDERS." } }, "consequences": { "fatalities": 0, "injuries": 0, "commodity": "NATURAL GAS", "release": "0", "propertyDamage": 200000, "estimatedOperatorCost": 0, "estimatedEmergencyCost": 4000, "estimatedEnvironmentalCost": null, "ignition": "NO", "explosion": "NO", "evacuated": 0, "raw": { "FATAL": "0", "INJURE": "0", "UNINTENTIONAL_RELEASE": "0", "EST_COST_PROP_DAMAGE": "200000", "PRPTY": "231540" } }, "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": 934, "rowSha256": "8e28e803230f90704702b43e6fc1aca6f43f3f11f065fd804d7ff7a9fb74eaf8" }, "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": "INCORRECT OPERATION", "sevenSubcategory": "INCORRECT VALVE POSITION", "eightCategory": "INCORRECT OPERATION", "eightSubcategory": "INCORRECT VALVE POSITION" }, "costs": { "reported": 231540, "in1984Dollars": 110850.43707137104, "currentYearDollars": 272367.8338627074 }, "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": 1069, "rowSha256": "74ac0f47e9118173dc7d4a26afcc5e15c3eecb0278efc05c7087e092e4915830" } }, "jurisdiction": "US", "operatorName": "TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE COMPANY" } ```