CONSUMERS ENERGY CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2016-04-13

Gas transmission and gathering incident in LANSING, EATON County, MI. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 231 NATURAL GAS released, $76,215 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: 20160039.

Operator ID: 2748.

Reported incident date: 4/13/2016 16:47.

Location detail: H2-L

Cause detail: THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE

Cause detail: ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016 WHILE PERFORMING A MOBILE LEAK SURVEY, CONSUMERS ENERGY'S CONTRACTOR, URG, DISCOVERED NATURAL GAS READINGS NEAR 1701 S. WAVERLY RD., (EATON COUNTY) LANSING, MICHIGAN. THE URG REPRESENTATIVE COMMUNICATED THEIR FINDINGS TO CONSUMERS ENERGY GAS DISPATCH AT APPROXIMATELY 16:47 AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE PERSONNEL ARRIVED ON-SITE AT APPROXIMATELY 17:08. THE DISTRIBUTION CREW ARRIVED AT THE SCENE AT APPROXIMATELY 17:47 AND BEGAN LEAK PINPOINTING; ISOLATING THE LEAK LOCATION APPROXIMATELY 500 FEET NORTH OF THE INTERSECTION OF WAVERLY RD. AND OLD LANSING HWY. NEAR CONSUMERS ENERGY'S LINE 1026. LINE 1026 IS A HIGH PRESSURE TRANSMISSION PIPELINE OPERATING AT 20% SMYS. ON APRIL 19, 2016 THE PRESSURE ON LINE 1026 WAS REDUCED TO 315 PSIG, ALLOWING CREWS TO CONTINUE THE LEAK INVESTIGATION. THE TRANSMISSION PIPELINE WAS DETERMINED TO BE APPROXIMATELY 17 FEET DEEP AND BECAUSE OF SOIL CONDITIONS AND PIPELINE DEPTH, ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND SHORING EQUIPMENT WERE NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN A SAFE EXCAVATION AND CONTINUE WORKING TO IDENTIFIED THE SOURCE AND PERFORM THE NEEDED REMEDIAL ACTION. ON APRIL 19, 2016 LOOSEN BOLTS ON THE LID OF A MUELLER PRESSURE CONTROL FITTING INSTALLED IN 2010 WERE DETERMINE TO BE THE SOURCE OF THE LEAK. THE FLANGES ON THE CONTROL FITTING WERE CLEANED, A NEW GASKET WAS INSTALLED AND BOLTS WERE TIGHTEN TO THE PROPER SPECIFICATION ON THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 ELIMINATING THE LEAK. THE LEAK LOCATION WAS CONTINUOUSLY MONITORED BY CONSUMERS ENERGY PERSONNEL AT DISCOVERY UNTIL THE SOURCE WAS IDENTIFIED AND REPAIRED. THE PIPELINE WAS NOT ISOLATED WHILE REMEDIAL WORK WAS BEING PERFORMED TO MINIMIZE OUTAGE IMPACT TO SEVERAL CRITICAL CUSTOMERS.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $78,281 reported total cost, $39,925.429 in 1984 dollars, $96,058.77 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.