ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS OPERATING LLC — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2009-12-23

Hazardous liquid incident in PORT BOLIVAR, GALVESTON County, TX. Reported cause: 15. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, YES CRUDE OIL released, $182,694 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: 20090351.

Operator ID: 31618.

Reported incident date: 12/23/2009.

Cause detail: COMPONENT

Cause detail: A PRESSURE SWITCH ON THE BOLIVAR VALVE STATION FAILED. STRESS ENGINEERING REPORT SUGGESTS THAT FRACTURED SURFACES ON THE SCREWS CONFIRMED THAT THE FRACTURES HAD OCCURRED BY WAY OF HYDROGEN ASSISTED CRACKING. THE HIGH HARDNESS OF THE ATTACHMENT SCREWS PROBABLY PLAYS A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE CRACKING PROCESS. ZINC RICH DEPOSITS FOUND ON SCREW #1 APPARENTLY DID NOT PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT WEIGHT LOSS CORROSION OF THE SCREW. THE PRESENCE OF SOLUTIONS CONTAINING ZINC SALTS MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE OBSERVED CRACKING OF THE SCREWS INDIRECTLY BY PROMOTING GALVANIC COUPLING BETWEEN THE SCREWS AND THE MORE CORROSION RESISTANT STAINLESS STEEL HOUSING. REPLACED FAILED SWITCH AND PUT PIPELINE BACK IN-SERVICE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD — JOINT/FITTING/COMPONENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $182,694 reported total cost, $100,832.998 in 1984 dollars, $248,320.641 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.