SOUTHERN STAR CENTRAL GAS PIPELINE — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2002-06-23

Gas transmission and gathering incident in HUTCHISON, RENO County, KS. Reported cause: 9. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, $63,885 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: 20020055.

Operator ID: 22617.

Reported incident date: 6/23/2002.

Cause detail: THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE

Cause detail: ON JUNE 6, 2002 LYONS DISTRICT RECEIVED A ONE CALL ON REPLACING A GAS LINE IN SEC 31,30 OF T 23S R 5 W OF RENO CO, KS FOR KANSAS GAS SERVICE BY BRB CONTRACTORS INC OF TOPEKA, KS. THIS WAS ON THE HUGOTON LINE ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE ARKANSAS RIVER AT HUTCHINSON, KANSAS. JOHN DUMOND RESPONDED TO THE ONE CALL (TICKET #204363). JOHN DUMOND MET JOHN KEENER WITH BRB CONTRACTORS OF TOPEKA, KS. JOHN DUMOND SPOTTED ALL THREE OF OUR LINES WHICH ALL RAN AT A DEPTH OF 63" TO 66". THE LINES WERE FLAGGED WITH YELLOW FLAGS THAT HAVE OUR NAME AND PHONE NUMBER ON THEM. JOHN DUMOND WROTE THE DEPTH OF EACH LINE ON THE FLAGS AT EACH LOCATION WHERE HE SPOTTED THE LINES WITH A LINE FINDER AND PROBED EACH LOCATION WITH A SPOTTING BAR. BRB IS THE GENERAL CONTRACTOR FOR KANSAS GAS SERVICE WHICH IS A DIVISION ON ONOEK. A&L UNDERGROUND IS A SUB-CONTRACTOR OF BRB CONTRACTORS INC DOING THE DIRECTIONAL BORE OF THE ARKANSAS RIVER. A&L UNDERGROUND AND BRB WERE ASKED TO EXPOSE OUR LINES TO THE BOTTOM OF EACH LINE WHERE WE COULD SEE THE DRILL STEM AND BITS WERE WELL BELOW OUR LINE. THEY SAID THAT THEY DIDN'T WANT TO DO THIS BECAUSE THEY WOULD LOSE THE CIRCULATION OF THEIR DRILLING MUD. THE DRILL STEM WORE A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE SOUTH 20" RIVER CROSSING. BILL WHITEHEAD WAS CALLED AT 4:10 AM SUNDAY MORNING JUNE 23, 2002, BY JOHN DUMOND, BILL CALLED OPERATIONS CONTROL ON HIS WAY TO THE LOCATION. A & L UNDERGROUND HAD CALLED JOHN. JOHN DUMOND HAD BEEN WITH BOTH CONTRACTORS WHEN THEY STARTED TO BORE THE RIVER CROSSING, AND REPEATEDLY ASSURED JOHN DUMOND THAT THEY WERE 10' BELOW OUR LINE. WHEN JOHN DUMOND AND BILL WHITEHEAD GOT TO THE SITE, THE BORING CREW HAD MOVED AWAY FROM THE BORING RIG AND WERE WAITING FOR THEM. JOHN AND BILL GOT THERE ALONG WITH KANSAS GAS SERVICE. OPERATIONS CONTROL WAS NOT SEEING ANY LOSS OF PRESSURE. AFTER THEY DETERMINED THAT IT WAS OUR LINE, THEY STARTED SHUTTING IT IN. DAN JASO AND MIKE HUGGANS WERE CALLED OUT TO HELP OPERATE THE GATES TO SHUT THE LINE SEGMENT IN. THE LINE HAD 740 PSIG ON IT AT THE TIME. THERE WAS NO FIRE, INJURIES, EMERGENCY PERSONNEL OR MEDIA INVOLVED WITH THE INCIDENT. THE LINE WAS ALLOWED TO BLOW DOWN THROUGH THE DAMAGED SPOT BECAUSE OF THE GROUND WATER THAT SHOWED UP WHEN THEY STARTED DIGGING THE LINE OUT TO INSPECT IT. BRB AND KANSAS AND KANSAS GAS SERVICE BROUGHT IN TRACK MOUNTED BACKHOES TO DIG THE DAMAGED LINE OUT. GROUND WATER BECAME A MAJOR PROBLEM WHILE EXPOSING THE DAMAGED LINE. BRB BROUGHT IN A 6" & 8" DITCH PUMPS WHICH ALLOWED US TO SEE THE LINE WITH THE DRILL STEM UNDER IT. WE WERE NOT ABLE TO INSTALL A CLAMP ON THE LINE UNTIL ABOUT MIDNIGHT SUNDAY NIGHT JUNE 23, 2002. A & L UNDERGROUND GOT THE DRILL STEM AND REAMER AWAY FROM OUR LINE AND WILLIAMS EMPLOYEES WERE ABLE TO INSTALL TWO BANDS CLAMPS TO KEEP THE WATER OUT OF THE LINE. WE KEPT ABOUT 10-20 PSIG ON THE LINE BECAUSE OF THE WATER UNTIL THE LINE WAS READY TO REPAIR. BRB WAS HANDLING THE EXCAVATING OF THE DAMAGED LINE AND PUMPING THE WATER ALONG WITH INSTALLATION OF SAND POINTS TO DRY THE HOLE UP ENOUGH SO WE COULD MAKE THE REPAIR. DUE TO PUMP PROBLEMS, THE PERMANENT LINE REPAIR WASN'T COMPLETED UNTIL WEDNESDAY JUNE 26 AT 9:00 AM. RONNIE YOUNG AND PETE GARCIA, WILLIAMS GAS PIPELINE COMPANY WELDERS, INSTALLED A FULL-ENCIRCLEMENT.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $63,885 reported total cost, $41,768.572 in 1984 dollars, $101,815.393 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.