WILLIAMS OLEFINS FEEDSTOCK PIPELINES, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-08-28

Gas transmission and gathering incident in BAYTOWN, HARRIS County, TX. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 6.157 OTHER GAS released, $6,000 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: 20170082.

Operator ID: 32614.

Reported incident date: 8/28/2017 14:00.

Location detail: FRED HARTMAN

Cause detail: DEFECTIVE OR LOOSE TUBING OR FITTING

Cause detail: AT APPROXIMATELY 2PM ON 08/28/2017, THE PRESSURE TRANSMITTER AT LPT1 WENT TO 0 PSI, ON THE 893 HCL (HYDROGEN CHLORIDE GAS) PIPELINE . THIS PRESSURE DROP REPRESENTED A 3/8' TUBING FAILURE ON AN INSTRUMENTATION RACK AT THE MLV UNDER THE FRED HARTMAN BRIDGE, RESULTING IN A PRODUCT RELEASE. THIS RELEASE WAS NOT PICKED UP BY ON-SITE GAS DETECTION, LIKELY DUE TO WIND DIRECTION AND STRENGTH. WINDS ARE ESTIMATED TO BE 15-20MPH FROM THE NORTH/NORTHEAST. SPORADIC HEAVY RAIN IS PRESENT IN THE AREA FROM THE ONGOING TROPICAL STORM, HARVEY. AT 4:10PM, A PASSER-BY CALLED WILLIAMS PIPELINE CONTROL TO ALERT THEM TO A RELEASE RESULTING IN A PLUME FROM THE SITE. THAT PASSER-BY WAS JENNIFER OLIVER, CELL PHONE 713-392-6214. PIPELINE CONTROL ISOLATED THE RELEASE BY ACTUATING MAINLINE VALVES TO CLOSE. PIPELINE CONTROL ALERTED CHANNELVIEW OPERATIONS, MOBILIZING SEVERAL MEMBERS OF THE TEAM TO INVESTIGATE THE INCIDENT. JONATHON KEETH, CHARLIE SHAW AND JAMES SPARKS ATTEMPTED TO GET TO THE SITE. JONATHAN KEETH WAS FIRST TO ARRIVE AND CHARLIE SHAW ARRIVED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER, WHERE LA PORTE EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM WAS ON SITE AT APPROXIMATELY 4:45PM. AN INCIDENT COMMAND STRUCTURE WAS ESTABLISHED IMMEDIATELY INCIDENT COMMANDER CHAD KUKLA SAFETY OFFICER JONATHAN KEETH 1ST RESPONDERS MAINTAINED 100 YARDS DISTANCE FROM THE VALVE SITE, STAYING UPWIND, TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE SAFETY MARGIN. LA PORTE FIRE DEPARTMENT ISSUED A SHELTER-IN-PLACE ORDER FOR SURROUNDING AREA RESIDENTS AND SHUT DOWN BOTH DIRECTIONS OF HWY 146 AND HWY 225. THERE WERE NO NEARBY FIRE HYDRANTS SO A WATER FOG TO MITIGATE THE HCL PLUME WAS NOT POSSIBLE. HAZMAT UNITS FROM HARRIS COUNTY AND OXY VINYL RESPONDED TO THE SCENE, ARRIVING AT 6:21PM, BAYTOWN HAZMAT ATTEMPTED TO RESPOND BUT WAS UNABLE. THE BEST METHOD OF DEALING WITH THE LINE WAS DETERMINED TO BE HAVING OXY VINYL PULL THE LINE DOWN, WHICH WAS AT 95 PSI TO START. LINE FILL EXPOSURE WAS CALCULATED TO BE 57K LBS OF HCL. OVER THE COURSE OF 1.5 HOURS, OXY WAS ABLE TO PULL THE LINE DOWN TO 13 PSI, TAKING 38K LBS, WHEN HAZMAT TEAMS ENTERED THE SITE TO ISOLATE THE RELEASE. THE HAZMAT TEAM ENTERING THE SITE CONSISTED OF TWO HARRIS COUNTY TEAM MEMBERS LEADING THE ISOLATION EFFORTS, WITH THREE OXY VINYL TEAM MEMBERS ENTERING IN ASSISTANCE. JONATHAN KEETH PROVIDED DETAILED INSTRUCTION OF THE SYSTEM TO THE HAZMAT TEAMS, LAYING OUT THE CORRECT VALVES TO CLOSE AND NECESSARY KEYS FOR ENTRY. AT 7:01PM, SITE ENTRY OCCURRED BY THE HAZMAT TEAMS. AT 7:02PM, THE FIRST VALVE WAS CLOSED AND ISOLATION OCCURRED. THE HAZMAT TEAMS THEN CLOSED THE 3/4' VALVE ON THE TUBING TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL ISOLATION OF THE RELEASE. AT 7:05PM, JONATHON ENTERED THE SITE TO DETERMINE THE NECESSARY TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT NEEDED TO PROVIDE POSITIVE ISOLATION. AT 7:13PM, AUTHORITIES RELEASED TRAFFIC IN BOTH DIRECTIONS OF HWY 146 AND HWY 225. JONATHON PLACED A TUBING PLUG AND THREADED FITTING WHERE THE TUBING FERAL FAILED AND LET GO. THE TUBING SECTION WHICH FAILED WAS REMOVED AND A NEW NUT, FERAL AND CAP WERE INSTALLED. THIS TRANSMITTER WILL REMAIN OUT OF SERVICE UNTIL THE WEATHER BREAKS OR A PLANNED REPAIR CAN TAKE PLACE ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, USING AN AWNING FOR SHELTER. THAT REPAIR TEAM IS SCHEDULED TO BE JONATHON KEETH AND CHARLIE SHAW. AT 7:25PM, ALL EMERGENCY RESPONDERS LEFT THE SITE. UPDATE 9/25/2017 TUBING CONNECTIONS HAVE BEEN REPLACED WITH NEW COMPONENTS. INITIAL INVESTIGATION SHOWS THAT THE TUBING FERULE FAILED, LIKELY DUE TO REACTION WITH HCL PRODUCT AND WATER IN ATMOSPHERE. NEW FITTINGS MANUFACTURED FROM HASTELLOY MATERIAL HAVE BEEN INSTALLED IN PLACE OF MONEL MATERIAL.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — DEFECTIVE OR LOOSE TUBING/FITTING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $6,002 reported total cost, $2,934.799 in 1984 dollars, $7,225.162 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.