WILLIAMS GAS PIPELINE - TRANSCO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2003-01-30

Gas transmission and gathering incident in COMER, MADISON County, GA. Reported cause: 24. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, $1,318,900 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: 20030016.

Operator ID: 19570.

Reported incident date: 1/30/2003.

Cause detail: MISCELLANEOUS

Cause detail: INVESTIGATION OF THE INCIDENT FOUND HIGH PRESSURE GAS HAD ENTERED THE LUBE OIL SYSTEM DUE TO A FAILURE OF THE HIGH PRESSURE GAS SEAL. ONCE THE GAS ENTERED THE LUBE OIL SYSTEM, IT VENTED INTO THE BUILDING AND IGNITED. IT APPEARS THE EXPLOSION OCCURRED IN THE ROOF AREA OF THE BUILDING AND BLEW OUT SECTIONS OF WALL ON THREE SIDES. INSPECTION OF THE COMPRESSOR WHEEL REVEALED THE CAUSE OF THE INCIDENT. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ROTOR, THERE WAS A PIECE OF METAL LODGED IN THE ROTOR. THE METAL WAS 6 TO 8 INCHES LONG AND APPROXIMATELY 1 INCH IN DIAMETER. IT APPEARS IT WAS LARGE ENOUGH TO HAVE JAMMED THE COMPRESSOR WHEEL CAUSING A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE OF THE GAS SEAL. COMPUTER PRINT OUT SHOWED ALL THE ALARMS FUNCTIONED AND INDICATED THE CHAIN OF EVENTS. BOTH ESD AND ESD II FUNCTIONED IMMEDIATELY, THUS ISOLATING THE COMPRESSOR UNIT FROM THE REST OF THE STATION. THE STATION CONTINUED TO RUN WITHOUT INTERRUPTION.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: ALL OTHER CAUSES — MISCELLANEOUS.

PHMSA indexed costs: $1,318,900 reported total cost, $840,591.275 in 1984 dollars, $2,070,117.606 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.