HOUSTON PIPELINE CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2003-01-18

Gas transmission and gathering incident in HOUSTON, HARRIS County, TX. Reported cause: 9. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, $173,900 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: 20030020.

Operator ID: 7605.

Reported incident date: 1/18/2003.

Cause detail: THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE

Cause detail: A CALL WAS RECEIVED IN HPL GAS CONTROL AT APPROXIMATELY 8:45 PM THAT A PIPELINE RUPTURE HAD OCCURRED. THE NOTICE WAS MADE BY A PERSON FAMILIAR WITH THE PIPELINE INDUSTRY THAT HAPPENED TO BE IN A NEARBY BUSINESS AND CALLED THE EMERGENCY NUMBER ON THE NEAREST PIPELINE MARKER. MORE THAN ONE COMPANY'S PIPELINE RUNS IN THE AREA. HPL PERSONNEL WERE NOTIFIED AND HEADED TOWARD THE SITE. AT ABOUT 9:00, PER GAS CONTROL, A PRESSURE DROP ON OUR PIPELINE WAS OBSERVED. HPL PERSONNEL ARRIVED IN THE AREA ABOUT 9:15 PM AND BASED ON VISUAL OBSERVATIONS AND THE INFORMATION FROM GAS CONTROL TOOK IMMEDIATE ACTION TO SHUT THE VALVES AND ISOLATE THE LEAK. ISOLATION OCCURRED AT APPROXIMATELY 9:30 PM. NO FIRE OCCURRED AND THE GAS QUICKLY DISSIPATED. THE SITE WAS SECURED, EXCAVATED AND 16' OF PIPE WAS REPLACED. REPAIRS WERE COMPLETED AT APPROXIMATELY 8:45 AM THE NEXT MORNING, JANUARY 19, AND SERVICE WAS RESTORED TO THE DISTRIBUTION COMPANY. UPON EXCAVATION OF THE SITE IT BECAME APPARENT THAT THE CAUSE OF THE RUPTURE WAS THIRD PARTY DAMAGE THAT OCCURRED AT SOME INDETERMINATE TIME IN THE PAST. THERE ARE VISUAL, OLD NOT FRESH, TEETH MARKS AND DENTS ON THE PIPE AND DAMAGE TO THE PROTECTIVE COATING. SEVERAL 4" PVC LINES WERE ENCOUNTERED WHEN EXCAVATING THE SITE. ONE WAS A GRAY WATER/SEWAGE LINE FROM A NEARBY RESTAURANT THAT CROSSED OVER AND WAS ONLY A FEW INCHES ABOVE THE HPL NATURAL GAS PIPELINE. A SUBSEQUENT REVIEW OF THE RECORDS DURING THE TIME OF CONSTRUCTION OF THE RESTAURANT SHOWS THAT NO ONE-CALLS WERE RECEIVED. THE RUPTURE OCCURRED IN A CLASS 3 AREA NEAR COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS. SEVERAL VEHICLES WERE DAMAGED. NO INJURIES WERE REPORTED OR OBSERVED AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. SERVICE TO LOCAL DISTRIBUTION COMPANY CUSTOMERS WAS DISRUPTED. SITE CLEAN-UP WAS COMPLETED THE NEXT DAY, JANUARY 19, AND NEARBY BUSINESSES WERE ABLE TO RE-OPEN.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $173,900 reported total cost, $111,208.817 in 1984 dollars, $265,618.631 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.