EXPLORER PIPELINE CO — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2009-08-17

Hazardous liquid incident in CANEY, ATOKA County, OK. Reported cause: 1. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, YES DIESEL FUEL released, $2,769,476 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: 20090261.

Operator ID: 4805.

Reported incident date: 8/17/2009.

Cause detail: CORROSION, EXTERNAL

Cause detail: ON AUGUST 17, 2009 DEAD VEGETATION WAS OBSERVED FROM AN AERIAL PATROL INSPECTION AT MILE POST 398.76 IN ATOKA COUNTY, OKLAHOMA ON EXPLORER PIPELINES 28 INCH SYSTEM FROM GREENVILLE, TEXAS TO GLENPOOL, OKLAHOMA. EXPLORER PERSONNEL ARRIVED AT MP 398.76 AT 12:44 AND CONFIRMED DEAD VEGETATION AND SURFACE INDICATIONS OF A POTENTIAL RELEASE. UPON EXCAVATION OF THE PIPELINE A LEAK WAS CONFIRMED. THE LEAK WAS TEMPORARILY REPAIRED WITH A PLIDCO REPAIR SLEEVE UNTIL A PERMANENT REPAIR WAS COMPLETED. NO FREE-PHASE PRODUCT WAS DISCOVERED OR RECOVERED AND THE LEAK VOLUME OF 100 BARRELS IS A CALCULATED ESTIMATE BASED ON INITIAL SOIL SAMPLING AND SOIL VAPOR EXTRACTION. ALL THE PUMP STATIONS DOWNSTREAM OF GREENVILLE, INCLUDING THE DURANT, OKLAHOMA PUMP STATION WHICH IS THE FIRST UPSTREAM PUMP STATION TO THE RELEASE, HAD BEEN DOWN SINCE 08:32. THE ONLY PRESSURE SOURCE ON THE PIPELINE WAS A PD PUMP THAT BEGAN INJECTING TRANSMIX AT 10:28 OUT OF GREENVILLE INTO THE 28 INCH SYSTEM. THE EXACT LEAK DURATION IS NOT KNOWN. THE HIGHEST PRESSURE RECORDED THE LAST 30 DAYS OUT OF THE DURANT, OKLAHOMA PUMP STATION WAS 682.50 PSIG. THE THROUGH WALL CRACK INITIATED ON THE EXTERNAL SURFACE OF THE PIPE IN A BOTTOM SIDE ROCK DENT WITH MINOR EXTERNAL CORROSION. THE ROCK DENT IS PRESUMED FROM ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION. THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE CRACKING IN ASSOCIATION WITH EXTERNAL CORROSION IS CONSISTENT WITH NEAR NEUTRAL PH STRESS CORROSION CRACKING. THE STATE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY THAT HAS OVERSIGHT OF THE PROJECT HAS YET TO PROVIDE CLOSURE OF THE REMEDIATION PROJECT. HOWEVER, PHMSA HAS REQUESTED A CLOSURE REPORT. THEREFORE, EXPLORER PIPELINE WILL ESTIMATE A WORST CASE OF AN ADDITIONAL $962,000 FOR CLOSURE OF THE REMEDIATION PROJECT WITH THE STATE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD — ENVIRONMENTAL CRACKING-RELATED.

PHMSA indexed costs: $2,769,476 reported total cost, $1,528,537.157 in 1984 dollars, $3,764,316.588 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.