TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-12-21

Gas transmission and gathering incident in WEST WINFIELD, HERKIMER County, NY. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 5780 NATURAL GAS released, $1,500 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: 20160004.

Operator ID: 19160.

Reported incident date: 12/21/2015 8:25.

Location detail: STATION 245

Cause detail: FAILURE OF EQUIPMENT BODY (EXCEPT COMPRESSOR), VESSEL PLATE, OR OTHER MATERIAL

Cause detail: ON 12/21/2015 AT 8:25 AM (LOCAL TIME)TENNESSE GAS PIPELINE EXPERIENCED AN ESD AT COMPRESSOR STATION 245 IN WEST WINFIELD, NY. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT STATION 245 C-BUILDING INITIATED A FUEL GAS SHUTDOWN WHEN A RUPTURE DISC ACTIVATED DURING MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES ON THE BOILER WATER HEATING SYSTEM. SLIGHT GAS PRESSURE INADVERTENTLY CHARGED THE RED ESD PIPING DUE TO AN IMPROPERLY RATED 1/2 INCH CHECK VALVE. THIS CAUSED THE 8 INCH SUCTION ESD BLOW OFF VALVE TO OPEN, BUT DID NOT SUPPLY ENOUGH PRESSURE TO CLOSE THE SIDE VALVES. A&B BUILDINGS ALSO SHUT DOWN DUE TO FUEL LOSS WHEN THE FUEL VALVE BLOCKED AND BLED. THERE WAS AN UNINTENTIONAL RELEASE OF 5,780 MCF OF NATURAL GAS.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — FAILURE OF EQUIPMENT BODY.

PHMSA indexed costs: $12,482 reported total cost, $10,935.341 in 1984 dollars, $14,356.158 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.