Incidenthistorical
PHMSA Report 20170025
EL PASO NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-03-04
Current as of 2017-03-04 Government source
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Gas transmission and gathering incident in CORNUDAS, HUDSPETH County, TX. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 3130 NATURAL GAS released, $250 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: 20170025.
Operator ID: 4280.
Reported incident date: 3/4/2017 12:33.
Location detail: 144
Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT
Cause detail: ON MARCH 4, 2017, AN EL PASO NATURAL GAS COMPANY OPERATIONS EMPLOYEE RESPONDED TO A REQUEST TO RESTART A COMPRESSOR ENGINE AT THE CORNUDAS COMPRESSOR STATION IN HUDSPETH COUNTY, TEXAS. UPON ARRIVAL, THE EMPLOYEE FOUND A 2" X 3" RELIEF VALVE RELEASING NATURAL GAS TO THE ATMOSPHERE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE UPSTREAM REGULATOR HAD FAILED DUE TO ITS INTERNAL BOOT BEING CONTAMINATED BY PIPELINE SLUDGE. THE REGULATOR WAS PROMPTLY ISOLATED, REPAIRED, AND PLACED BACK INTO SERVICE WITH THE COMPRESSOR STATION RETURNING TO NORMAL OPERATION.
PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.
PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT.
PHMSA indexed costs: $7,750 reported total cost, $7,243.598 in 1984 dollars, $9,044.942 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.
This material provides agency context. It does not replace binding regulatory text, and its legal effect depends on the underlying authority and facts.