PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-02-28

Gas transmission and gathering incident in REDWOOD VALLEY, MENDOCINO County, CA. Reported cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 3995 NATURAL GAS released, $400,000 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: 20170028.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 2/28/2017 10:59.

Location detail: MP 130

Cause detail: ENVIRONMENTAL CRACKING-RELATED

Cause detail: ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017, AT 1059 HOURS, PG&E WAS NOTIFIED OF A GAS ODOR NEAR 16500 TOMKI ROAD, REDWOOD VALLEY. PG&ES GAS SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE (GSR) WAS ON SITE APPROXIMATELY AT 1127 HOURS. THE GSR MEASURED 20% GAS IN AIR AT THE LOCATION. PG&E CREWS ARRIVED ON-SITE AND CLASSIFIED THE LEAK AS GRADE 1. THE LEAK WAS ALONG LINE 21E AT MILE POINT (MP) 130. THE OPERATING PRESSURE OF THE SYSTEM WAS LOWERED FROM 400 TO 240 PSIG. LNG WAS USED FOR SUPPORT. ON 3/3/17, THE LEAK WAS EXCAVATED AND THE SOURCE OF LEAK WAS DETERMINED. THE CLEARANCE WAS EXECUTED ON 3/3/17 BY 0800 HOURS TO ISOLATE THE LEAK. THE LEAK WAS CONTINUOUSLY MONITORED UNTIL THE REPAIRS WERE COMPLETED. FOLLOWING THE REPAIR OF THIS LEAK, THE PIPE WAS CUT OUT AND METALLURGICAL TESTING WAS PERFORMED. THE DIRECT CAUSE OF THE LEAK WAS DETERMINED TO BE NEAR NEUTRAL PH (NNPH) SCC IN THE CIRCUMFERENTIAL DIRECTION. THIS SECTION OF PIPE WAS LOCATED IN A GEOLOGICALLY UNSTABLE AREA WITH A HISTORY OF LANDSLIDES. APPROXIMATELY 100 FEET OF PIPE WAS REPLACED AND THE SYSTEM WAS RESTORED TO NORMAL OPERATIONS ON 3/14/17 BY 0100 HOURS. THERE WAS NO CUSTOMER IMPACT. THERE WERE NO INJURIES OR FATALITIES REPORTED. THERE WAS NO MEDIA, POLICE OR FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORTED. THIS INCIDENT WAS REPORTED TO THE DOT AND CPUC ONCE IT WAS DETERMINED THAT REPAIRS TO GAS FACILITIES WOULD EXCEED $50,000 ON 2/28/17 AT APPROXIMATELY 1700 HOURS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $412,002 reported total cost, $206,922.812 in 1984 dollars, $495,514.758 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.