PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-05-06

Gas transmission and gathering incident in YUBA CITY, SUTTER COUNTY County, CA. Reported cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.01 NATURAL GAS released, $160,000 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: 20150076.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 5/6/2015 23:59.

Location detail: MP 0.71

Cause detail: DESIGN-, CONSTRUCTION-, INSTALLATION-, OR FABRICATION-RELATED

Cause detail: AT APPROXIMATELY 1245 HOURS ON MAY 6, 2015 WHILE CONDUCTING GAS TRANSMISSION ASSESSMENT WORK, A PG&E CREW SMELLED GAS NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF GARDEN HIGHWAY AND LINCOLN ROAD IN YUBA CITY. A PG&E GAS CONSTRUCTION CREW EXCAVATED THE GAS FACILITY TO DETERMINE THE LEAK SOURCE. A LEAK ON DFM 1501-01 WAS DISCOVERED ON THE GIRTH WELD AT 2359 HOURS ON MAY 6, 2015. PG&E ISOLATED AND DE-PRESSURIZED A SECTION OF THE DFM BY APPROXIMATELY 0045 HOURS ON MAY 7, 2015. A 5-FOOT SECTION OF PIPE (WITH THE LEAK) WAS CUT OUT AND REPLACED WITH PRE-TESTED PIPE. THE LINE WAS PUT BACK IN SERVICE BY 0530 HOURS, ON MAY 7, 2015. DURING THE INCIDENT, THERE WERE NO INJURIES OR FATALITIES, AND THERE WAS NO IGNITION OF THE GAS. NO MEDIA WAS PRESENT. PG&E PROVIDED CNG TO THE CUSTOMERS SERVED OFF THIS SECTION OF THE DFM, THUS NO CUSTOMERS LOST GAS SERVICE DURING THE INCIDENT. THE INCIDENT WAS REPORTED TO THE NATIONAL RESPONSE CENTER AND THE CPUC WHEN ESTIMATED DAMAGES WERE DETERMINED TO LIKELY TO EXCEED $50,000. THE CAUSE OF THE LEAK ORIGINATED FROM THE GIRTH WELD CRACK, WHICH WAS FOUND TO BE CAUSED BY DUCTILE OVERLOAD AT A LOCATION WHERE INCOMPLETE FUSION, AND INCOMPLETE PENETRATION WERE PRESENT.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD — CONSTRUCTION, INSTALLATION OR FABRICATION-RELATED.

PHMSA indexed costs: $160,058 reported total cost, $80,320.471 in 1984 dollars, $197,738.192 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.