PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-05-25

Gas transmission and gathering incident in NEEDLES, SAN BERNARDINO County, CA. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 NATURAL GAS released, $0 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: 20110203.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 5/25/2011 12:42.

Location detail: L-300B

Cause detail: OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION

Cause detail: ON MAY 25, 2011 AT 1242 HOURS, PG&E DETERMINED THAT THE ODORANT LEVEL IN TRANSMISSION LINE 300B EXCEEDED LIMITS AT TOPOCK COMPRESSOR STATION. BECAUSE OF CONCERN OF ODOR COMPLAINTS FROM CUSTOMERS SMELLING THE ODORANT AT APPLIANCES THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHERN PG&E TERRITORY, THE DECISION WAS MADE TO VENT >3 MMCF OF GAS TO ATMOSPHERE AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS ON LINE 300B AND SOUTH OF RIDGECREST ON LINE 311. VENTING OCCURRED ON TWO OCCASIONS: 1) AT 1840 HOURS ON 5/26/11 AND COMPLETED AT 0545 HOURS ON 5/27/11 AND 2) AT 1453 HOURS ON TUESDAY MAY 31 AND WAS COMPLETED LATER THE SAME DAY AT APPROXIMATELY 2200 HOURS. GAS SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES WERE STANDING BY DURING THE VENTING, PURGING AND RE-PRESSURIZATION ACTIVITIES; HOWEVER NO CUSTOMER CALLS WHERE RECEIVED. THE ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF GAS VENTED IS 465 MMCF. THERE WERE NO INJURIES OR FATALITIES. THERE WERE NO MAJOR MEDIA OR PUBLIC AGENCIES PRESENT. THIS INCIDENT IS REPORTABLE DUE TO DAMAGES EXCEEDING $50,000. ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2014, PG&E DETERMINED THAT THE VOLUME OF GAS INTENTIONALLY RELEASE SHOULD BE CORRECTED TO 465 MMCF AND THE COST OF GAS INTENTIONALLY RELEASED SHOULD BE CORRECTED TO $2,000,000. PLEASE NOTE THAT PART A, QUESTION 11, "ESTIMATED VOLUME OF INTENTIONAL AND CONTROLLED RELEASE/BLOWDOWN" SHOULD BE 465,000 MCF.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $3,400,000 reported total cost, $2,154,093.288 in 1984 dollars, $3,572,139.035 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.