BUCKEYE PARTNERS, LP — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2010-05-20

Hazardous liquid incident in LINDEN, UNION County, NJ. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1 REFINED AND/OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT (NON-HVL) WHICH IS A LIQUID AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $169,800 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: 20100114.

Operator ID: 1845.

Reported incident date: 5/20/2010 15:50.

Location detail: 9013

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: AT 3:50 PM ON MAY 20, 2010, THE BUCKEYE PARTNERS LINDEN, NJ CONTROL CENTER RECEIVED A CALL FROM ANOTHER PIPELINE OPERATOR STATING THAT THEY WERE INVESTIGATING A SHEEN ON PILES CREEK NEAR GRASSELLI ROAD, AND THERE WAS A PUDDLE OF PRODUCT IN THE AREA OF OUR PIPELINE. THE PIPELINE HAD BEEN SHUT DOWN, WITH PRODUCT IN IT, SINCE 1:00 PM DUE TO SOME MAINTENANCE ACTIVITY. BUCKEYE DISPATCHED PERSONNEL TO THE LOCATION TO DETERMINE IF BUCKEYE'S PIPELINE WAS LEAKING. WHEN BUCKEYE PERSONNEL ARRIVED ON SITE, THEY DETERMINED THAT IT WAS BUCKEYE'S 601 LINE THAT HAD A PINHOLE LEAK, AND THEN INITIATED AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE. ALL APPROPRIATE NOTIFICATIONS WERE MADE. THE PIPELINE SECTION WAS ISOLATED, THE PRODUCT WAS CONTAINED, AND A TEMPORARY PLIDCO REPAIR SLEEVE WAS INSTALLED. THE PIPELINE WAS RESTARTED AT A REDUCED PRESSURE. THE TEMPORARY REPAIR WAS MONITORED UNTIL THE PERMANENT REPAIR WAS MADE ON JUNE 3, 2010 BY CUTTING OUT THE DAMAGED PIPE AND REPLACING IT WITH CERTIFIED PIPE. AFTER THE PERMANENT REPAIR WAS COMPLETED, THE PIPELINE WAS PLACED BACK INTO SERVICE AT THE ORIGINAL PRESSURE. THE DAMAGED PIPE HAS BEEN SENT TO A LABORATORY FOR A METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF THE RELEASE. UPDATE: THE RESULT OF THE METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS DETERMINED THE MORPHOLOGY IN THE REGION OF THE FAILURE IS CONSISTENT WITH MICROBIALLY INFLUENCED CORROSION (MIC).

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $305,195 reported total cost, $166,991.696 in 1984 dollars, $411,249.153 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.