COLONIAL PIPELINE CO — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2020-04-06

Hazardous liquid incident in OXFORD, CALLHOUN County, AL. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 3.17 REFINED AND/OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT (NON-HVL) WHICH IS A LIQUID AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $28,779 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: 20200129.

Operator ID: 2552.

Reported incident date: 4/6/2020 18:20.

Location detail: 422

Cause detail: PUMP OR PUMP-RELATED EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: ON 04/06/2020 AT 18:20 THE CONTROL ROOM RECEIVED A HIGH SUMP ALARM AT OXFORD STATION, AND A TECHNICIAN WAS CALLED OUT. WHEN THE TECHNICIAN ARRIVED HE PUMPED THE SUMP AND THEN CHECKED STATION. THE TECHNICIAN FOUND PRODUCT FLOWING INTO THE TATTLETALE BOX AND THEN OBSERVED PRODUCT TRICKLING OUT OF THE TOP OF THE LINE 1 UNIT 1 DISCHARGE VALVE. THE TECHNICIAN MOVED THE VALVE AND THE LEAKING STOPPED. TECHNICIAN NOTIFIED THE CC AND THE OM. THE DO AND DEM WERE SUBSEQUENTLY NOTIFIED. THERE WAS A 12 INCH BY 12 INCH STAIN IN THE GRAVEL AT THE VALVE AND PRODUCT IN THE NEARBY ACCESS WELLS. CLEAN UP BEGAN IMMEDIATELY. REPAIR IS BEING PLANNED. DURING CLEAN UP ACTIVITIES ON 4/09/20 IT WAS ESTIMATED THAT THE COST OF CLEAN UP ACTIVITIES WOULD LIKELY EXCEED THE $50,000 THRESHOLD SO THE NRC NOTIFICATION WAS MADE AT 14:31 (REPORT #1275115). A COURTESY NOTIFICATION WAS MADE TO ALABAMA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (JANE SMYTH) ON APRIL THE 9TH AT 13:09 CDT. AN ADDITIONAL COURTESY NOTIFICATION WAS MADE TO ADEM'S GROUNDWATER BRANCH (TIM YOUNG) ON APRIL 13TH 13:37 CDT. CLEAN UP OF FREE PRODUCT AND SOIL REMOVAL IS COMPLETE. DURING THE RESPONSE EFFORT, 90 GALLONS OF FREE PRODUCT WAS COLLECTED AS WELL AS 2,265 GALLONS OF PCW. ADDITIONALLY, 63 TONS OF SOIL WAS REMOVED FOR DISPOSAL, CONTAINING A CALCULATED 43 GALLONS OF PRODUCT. FINAL RELEASE VOLUME ESTIMATE IS 133 GALLONS. THE INCIDENT ANALYSIS DETERMINED THAT DEBRIS HAD BEEN DEPOSITED ON THE STEM INTERNAL FROM THE O-RING, THEN RODE THE STEM THROUGH THE O-RING, DAMAGING THE O-RING OVER DECADES OF SERVICE UNTIL THE O-RING EVENTUALLY FAILED.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — PUMP/COMPRESSOR OR PUMP/COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $65,591 reported total cost, $30,328.136 in 1984 dollars, $74,688.865 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.