Incidenthistorical
PHMSA Report 20140014
DTE GAS COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-01-06
Current as of 2014-01-06 Government source
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Gas transmission and gathering incident in SIX LAKES, MONTCALM County, MI. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 18400 NATURAL GAS released, $2,250 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: 20140014.
Operator ID: 12408.
Reported incident date: 1/6/2014 14:05.
Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT
Cause detail: AT APPROXIMATELY 14:05 A FLAME SENSOR NEAR COMPRESSOR UNIT 109 IN PLANT 1 ACTIVATED THE EMERGANCY SHUTDOWN (ESD) SYSTEM FOR PLANT 1. FOUR RELIEF VALVE OPERATORS PROPERLY ACTUATED TO OPEN, RELEASING NATURAL GAS TO THE ATMOSPHERE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ESD SYSTEM DESIGN. THE ESD ALSO TRIGGERED FOUR BLOCK VALVE OPERATORS INTENDED TO ISOLATE PLANT 1 FROM THE INLET (SUCTION) AND OUTLET (DISCHARGE) PIPELINES; HOWEVER, ONLY ONE OF THE FOUR BLOCK VALVES ACTUALLY CLOSED. LOCAL OPERATING PERSONNEL DETERMINED THAT EXTREME WEATHER OVER THE PAST DAYS (TEMPERATURES AS LOW AS -15 DEGREES F, WINDY AND SNOW CONDITIONS) MAY HAVE PREVENTED THE HYDRAULIC ACTUATING SYSTEMS FOR THE REMAINING THREE BLOCK VALVE OPERATORS FROM CLOSING THOSE THREE VALVES. LOCAL OPERATING PERSONNEL MANUALLY OPERATED THE REMAINING THREE BLOCK VALVES, CLOSING THE LAST ONE AT APPROXIMATELY 14:59. ONCE THE LAST OF THE THREE REMAINING BLOCK VALVES WERE CLOSED, THE PIPING TO PLANT 1 CONTINUED TO BLOW DOWN TO ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE IN UNDER A MINUTE. AT NO TIME WAS MAOP OF THE COMPRESSOR STATION PIPING EXCEEDED. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THERE WAS NO FIRE OR IGNITION INSIDE THE BUILDING AT PLANT 1. INVESTIGATION CONTINUES INTO WHETHER THE FLAME SENSOR MAY HAVE BEEN FAULTY AND NEEDS TO BE REPLACED.
PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.
PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT.
PHMSA indexed costs: $89,884 reported total cost, $61,585.34 in 1984 dollars, $77,635.038 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.
This material provides agency context. It does not replace binding regulatory text, and its legal effect depends on the underlying authority and facts.