COLONIAL PIPELINE CO — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2016-08-12

Hazardous liquid incident in JACKSON, EAST FELICIANA County, LA. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.1 REFINED AND/OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT (NON-HVL) WHICH IS A LIQUID AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $4,200,000 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: 20160294.

Operator ID: 2552.

Reported incident date: 8/12/2016 11:00.

Location detail: 222

Cause detail: HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS

Cause detail: ON 8/12/16, AT 11:05, OPERATORS AT BATON ROUGE JUNCTION WERE RESPONDING TO MULTIPLE FACILITY ALARMS CAUSED BY EXTREMELY HEAVY RAINS AND RESULTING FLOODING INCLUDING A SPILL CHECK ALARM ON TANK 1476. WHILE RESPONDING TO THE ALARM, OPERATORS OBSERVED A PRODUCT/WATER MIXTURE FLOWING FROM THE ROOF DRAIN DISCHARGE PIPING. THEY IMMEDIATELY ISOLATED THE DIKE FOR TANK 1476 AND THE DISCHARGE PIPING OUTLET, THEN NOTIFIED THE OPERATIONS MANAGER (OM) OF THE RELEASE. THE OM IMMEDIATELY MADE REQUIRED INTERNAL NOTIFICATIONS. THE RELEASED PRODUCT WAS INITIALLY CONTAINED WITHIN THE DIKE. PERSONNEL IMMEDIATELY RESPONDED AND BEGAN PERFORMING ISOLATION AND INITIAL CLEANUP ACTIVITIES. TANK 1476 WAS NOT IN USE AT THE TIME AND SINCE THE RELEASE DID NOT AFFECT LOCAL OPERATIONS THE FACILITY WAS NOT SHUT-DOWN. AS FLOOD WATERS RAISED AT THE FACILITY, ALL FACILITY OPERATIONS WERE SAFELY SHUTDOWN AND ISOLATED AT 12:08. WHEN STANDING WATER LEVELS RECEDED AND FACILITY ASSESSMENTS WERE COMPLETED OPERATIONS WERE SYSTEMATICALLY RESTARTED BEGINNING AT 15:00 AND THE FACILITY WAS RETURNED TO FULL OPERATIONAL CAPABILITY BY 18:00. ONCE THE DETERMINATION WAS MADE THE RESPONSE COSTS WOULD EXCEED $50,000, THE NRC WAS NOTIFIED AT 17:25 AND STATE OF LA (SPOC) AT 17:30. DURING THE RESPONSE, CONTINUED HEAVY RAINS RESULTED IN ADDITIONAL PRODUCT RELEASES (THROUGH ROOF DRAINS) FROM TANKS 1486 AND 1474. ALL INVOLVED TANKS HAVE EXTERNAL FLOATING ROOFS. AT 15:35, A PRODUCT SHEEN WAS OBSERVED ON THE TANK FARM 3 RETENTION POND. RESPONDERS HAD PREVIOUSLY PLACED CONTAINMENT AND ABSORBENT BOOM IN THE RETENTION POND, AT THE POND OUTFALL, AND IN EACH IMPACTED TANK DIKE SO ALL RELEASED PRODUCT WAS CONTAINED ONSITE. EACH IMPACTED TANK WAS EMPTIED AND ISOLATED. INITIAL INVESTIGATION PERFORMED ON 8/12/16 REVEALED TANK ROOF DAMAGE (BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY THE WEATHER) ON TANKS 1474 AND 1476. THE ROOF DAMAGE RESULTED IN COMPROMISED ROOF SEALS, ALLOWING PRODUCT PAST THE SEALS AND ONTO THE ROOFS OF EACH TANK. INVESTIGATION ALSO FOUND THE ROOF DRAIN SYSTEM WAS COMPROMISED ON TANK 1486 BUT WAS UNABLE TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE (NO VISIBLE SIGNS FROM ROOF). FINAL CLEANUP ACTIVITIES WERE COMPLETED ON 8/15/16 AND THE IMPACTED FACILITY AREAS WERE CLOSELY MONITORED OVER THE COURSE OF THE NEXT SEVERAL WEEKS. FULL ASSESSMENT AND INITIAL REPAIRS STARTED ON 8/15/16 FOR TANKS 1476 AND 1474 (OUT-OF-SERVICE INSPECTION/REPAIRS) AND ON 8/17/16 FOR TANK 1486 (IN-SERVICE INSPECTION/REPAIRS). PERMANENT REPAIRS WILL BE COMPLETED BASED ON FINDINGS FROM EACH INSPECTION. REVISED SPILL VOLUME CALCULATION RESULTS: AFTER THE INITIAL RESPONSE, THE AFFECTED TANKS WERE TAKEN OUT-OF-SERVICE, CLEANED AND INSPECTED. FOLLOW-UP INSPECTION REVEALED DAMAGED INTERNAL ROOF DRAIN PIPING ON TANK 1486 AS ITS SOURCE OF RELEASE. THE PIPING WAS REPAIRED ON 10/4/16 AND THE TANK WAS PLACED BACK INTO SERVICE ON 10/11/16. INSPECTION OF TANKS 1476 AND 1474 REVEALED DAMAGE TO THE ROOF LEGS IN EACH TANK. MULTIPLE LEGS IN EACH TANK WERE BENT OR OTHERWISE MISALIGNED AS A RESULT OF ROOF BUCKLING. AS EACH ROOF WAS LANDED DURING THE PROCESS OF EMPTYING THE TANKS, THE DAMAGED LEGS PUNCTURED EACH TANK FLOOR IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, CAUSING PREVIOUSLY UNCALCULATED PRODUCT TO BE RELEASED BENEATH EACH TANK FLOOR. THE FLOORS WERE REMOVED FROM EACH TANK AND ENVIRONMENTAL PERSONNEL INITIATED TESTING OF THE IMPACTED SOIL INCLUDING BORE-SAMPLING. CALCULATIONS FROM THIS FOLLOW-UP TESTING RESULTED IN A REVISED TOTAL SPILL VOLUME OF APPROXIMATELY 450 TOTAL BARRELS; APPROXIMATELY 48 BARRELS RELEASED ONTO ROOFS AND OUTSIDE OF TANKAGE (THROUGH ROOF DRAINS), APPROXIMATELY 236 BARRELS OF PRODUCT BENEATH TANK 1476 AND APPROXIMATELY 166 BARRELS BENEATH TANK 1474 (AS INDICATED BY SOIL BORE SAMPLING RESULTS). ALTHOUGH THE COLLECTED SAMPLES SHOWED THE PRESENCE OF LATENT PRODUCT BENEATH EACH TANK, IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE TO CONFIDENTLY DELINEATE BETWEEN RECENT AND LATENT VOLUMES. REVISED CALCULATIONS WERE FINALIZED ON 2/17/17. IMPACTED SOIL REMOVAL IS IN-PROGRESS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS.

PHMSA indexed costs: $4,355,500 reported total cost, $2,167,052.569 in 1984 dollars, $5,336,783.535 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.