COLONIAL PIPELINE COMPANY — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2006-08-17

Hazardous liquid incident in NASHVILLE, DAVIDSON County, TN. Reported cause: 9. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, YES DIESEL released, $862,000 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: 20060270.

Operator ID: 2552.

Reported incident date: 8/17/2006.

Cause detail: THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE

Cause detail: ON AUGUST 17, 2006, AT 08:45 CDT THE CONTROL CENTER RECEIVED A CALL FROM A CONTRACTOR IN NASHVILLE SAYING HE HAD HIT THE PIPELINE WITH A BULLDOZER NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF THE LINE AND NASHBORO BLVD IN METRO NASHVILLE. THE CONTRACTOR REPORTED THAT THE LINE WAS LEAKING DIESEL FUEL. BOTH LINES 19 AND 20 WERE IMMEDIATELY SHUT DOWN AND AS MUCH PRESSURE AS POSSIBLE WAS REMOVED FROM LINES INTO NASHVILLE DELIVERY. AT 08:50, THE CONTROL CENTER LEADER INFORMED THE DISTRICT LEADER WHO SUBSEQUENTLY NOTIFIED THE OPERATIONS MANAGER. AT 09:03, OPERATIONS MANAGER SENT OUT 2 NASHVILLE SENIOR OPERATORS AND 2 TECHNICIANS TO INVESTIGATE. THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGER MADE NOTIFICATION TO NASHVILLE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND DISPATCHED LOCAL OSROS TO THE SITE TO ASSIST IN RESPONSE AND CLEAN UP ACTIVITIES. AT 09:26, SENIOR OPERATOR ARRIVED ON SITE AND CONFIRMED THAT DIESEL FUEL WAS LEAKING FROM LINE 20. THE BULLDOZER OPERATOR THAT HAD STRUCK THE LINE WAS BUILDING A DIRT BERM TO CONTAIN THE PRODUCT. THE SENIOR OPERATOR DIRECTED THE OPERATOR TO BUILD AN ADDITIONAL BERM TO PREVENT THE PRODUCT FROM ENTERING A STORM DRAIN THAT WAS LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 200 FEET DOWNGRADIENT OF THE RELEASE POINT. THE UPSTREAM LINE 20 BLOCK VALVE AT LAKE ROAD WAS CLOSED TO MINIMIZE THE DRAIN-UP AT THE POINT OF RELEASE. TDEC AND NASHVILLE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ARRIVED AT THE LEAK SITE AROUND 09:30. AT 10:30, EMERGENCY RESPONSE CONTRACTORS ARRIVED AND BEGAN TO RECOVER PRODUCT THAT HAD POOLED BEHIND THE CONTAINMENT BERMS WITH VACUUM TRUCKS. LINE 20 WAS EXCAVATED AND FUEL OIL WAS OBSERVED TO BE DRAINING OUT OF A 1-INCH BY 4-INCH HOLE IN THE PIPELINE. A VACUUM TRUCK WAS UTILIZED TO CONTAIN AND RECOVER THE REMAINING DRAIN-UP FROM THE LEAK, WHICH CONTINUED UNTIL APPROXIMATELY 12:30. RECONNAISANCE WAS CONDUCTED IN THE LEAK SITE VICINITY TO IDENTIFIY ALL POTENTIAL PRODUCT RESURGENCE POINTS IN THE EVENT OF PRODUCT MIGRATION THROUGH THE SUBSURFACE. EMERGENCY RESPONSE CONTRACTORS DEPLOYED BOOM AT SIX LOCATIONS WITHIN A NEARBY CREEK AND PLUGGED THE STORM SEWER AS A PRECAUTION. TO DATE, NO PRODUCT HAS MIGRATED TO THE CREEK, STORM DRAIN, OR SANITARY SEWER. A PRODUCT RECOVERY TRENCH WAS INSTALLED ON THE PIPELINE RIGHT-OF-WAY AT THE BASE OF THE HILL ADJACENT TO NASHBORO BLVD. APPROXIMATELY 1,500 GALLONS OF PRODUCT WERE RECOVERED FROM THE POOLED PRODUCT LOCATIONS BEHIND THE CONTAINMENT BERMS AND FROM THE RECOVERY TRENCH. THE INITIAL ESTIMATED RELEASE VOLUME OF 200 BARRELS IS BASED UPON LINE FILL CALCULATIONS AND DRAIN-UP ESTIMATES. BASED UPON A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT CONDUCTED AT THE LEAK SITE, IT APPEARS THAT IMPACTS FROM THE RELEASE ARE CONFINED TO AN AREA MEASURING APPROXIMATELY 200 FEET BY 200 FEET ALONG THE PIPELINE RIGHT OF WAY SOUTH OF NASHBORO BLVD. EXCAVATION EFFORTS ARE UNDERWAY TO REMOVE AN ESTMATED 10,000 TO 12,000 TONS OF SOILS IMPACTED BY THE RELEASE. EXCAVATION OF THE IMPACTED SOILS IS EXPECTED TO MINIMIZE GROUNDWATER IMPACTS AND SHOULD ALLOW FOR SITE CLOSURE FROM THE TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION. THE MAJORITY OF PRODUT RECOVERED FROM THE ENVIRONMENT WILL BE FROM THE EXCAVATION OF IMPACTED SOILS. THE FINAL VOLUME OF RECOVERED PRODUCT WILL BE DETERMINED UPON COMPLETION OF SOIL EXCAVATION ACTIVITIES. SITE REMEDIATION ACTIVITIES HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. APPROXIMATELY 9,916 TONS OF IMPACTED SOIL WERE EXCAVATED AND TRANSPORTED TO A LOCAL LANDFILL FOR DISPOSAL. CLEAN-UP GOALS WERE MET AND A CLOSURE REQUEST WILL BE SUBMITTED TO TDEC IN JANUARY 2007. NO ADDITIONAL ACTIONS ARE EXPECTED AT THE SITE. AN UPDATED SPILL VOLUME ESTIMATE OF 113 BARRELS HAS BEEN CALCULATED BASED UPON THE COMBINED TOTAL OF THE AMOUNT OF LIQUID PRODUCT RECOVERED AT THE SITE (35 BARRELS) AND THE ESTIMATED VOLUME OF PRODUCT ABSORBED WITHIN IMPACTED SOILS (78 BARRELS) AT THE SITE. THE SPILL VOLUME ESTIMATE ASSUMES THAT ALL OF THE RELEASED PRODUCT WAS RECOVERED EITHER IN LIQUID PHASE BY VACUUM TRUCK OR IN THE ABSORBED PHASE THROUGH SOIL EXCAVATION AND THAT ONLY NEGLIGIBLE AMOUNTS OF PRODUCT WERE LOST TO EVAPORATION, DISSOLVED IN GROUNDWATER, OR REMAIN WITHIN SITE SOILS. THIS ASSUMPTION IS BASED UPON THE LOW VOLATILITY AND SOLUBILITY OF FUEL OIL AND THE RESULTS OF SITE INVESTIGATION ACTIVITIES.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $862,000 reported total cost, $504,069.501 in 1984 dollars, $1,241,368.047 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.