FLORIDA GAS TRANSMISSION CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-10-20

Gas transmission and gathering incident in BARTOW, POLK County, FL. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 41 NATURAL GAS released, $0 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: 20110385.

Operator ID: 5304.

Reported incident date: 10/20/2011 17:20.

Location detail: 00+48

Cause detail: VALVE LEFT OR PLACED IN WRONG POSITION, BUT NOT RESULTING IN AN OVERPRESSURE

Cause detail: IN PREPARATION OF A MAINTENANCE PROJECT TO CLEAN A SEGMENT OF THE 12' SARASOTA LATERAL, DIESEL FUEL WAS INTRODUCED INTO THE PIPELINE AT THE LAUNCHER SITE TO SERVE AS A CARRIER TO PICK UP ANY SOLIDS IN THE LINE. THE CUSTOMERS TAP LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 20 MI DOWNSTREAM OF THE LAUNCHER SITE WAS OPENED SERVING THE CUSTOMERS LOAD. THE PROJECT PLAN CALLED FOR CLOSING THE CUSTOMERS TAP VALVE BEFORE THE COLUMN OF DIESEL REACHED THE TAP THEN REOPENING THE TAP VALVE ONCE THE PIG PUSHING THE DIESEL COLUMN PAST THE CUSTOMERS TAP. ARRANGEMENTS HAD BEEN MADE TO SUPPLY THE CUSTOMERS LOAD WITH AN ALTERNATE DELIVERY (GULFSTREAM) AS A BACK UP TO FGT SO AS NOT TO IMPACT THE CUSTOMERS LOAD REQUIREMENTS DURING THE PROJECT. THE PIG WAS EQUIPPED WITH A TRANSMITTER AND TRACKED ALONG THE PIPELINE VIA ELECTRONIC TRACKING EQUIPMENT AND GEO PHONES. PERSONNEL TRACKING THE PIG WERE UNABLE TO DETECT THE PIG WHEN IT REACHED A POINT THAT WAS ESTABLISHED FOR COMMUNICATING TO PERSONNEL AT CUSTOMERS TAP VALVE TO CLOSE THE VALVE AND A PORTION OF THE DIESEL IN THE GAS STREAM ENTERED THE METER AND REGULATOR STATION THAT CAUSED THE RELIEF VALVE TO BRIEFLY ACTIVATE, VENTING DIESEL ENTRAINED GAS THROUGH THE RELIEF VALVE. THE DIESEL MIST CARRIED SOME DISTANCE AWAY AND EVENTUALLY SETTLED ON SEVERAL NEARBY PROPERTIES AND VEHICLES RESULTING IN A CLEANUP REQUIREMENT. **THIS REPORT IS BEING SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO PHMSA'S REQUEST, (DOCKET ID PHMSA-2013-0028), FOR SUPPLEMENTAL REPORTS FROM OPERATORS WHO SUBMITTED REPORTS FOR INCIDENTS OCCURRING AFTER JANUARY 1, 2010, WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING: (1) ``PIPE GIRTH WELD'' WAS SELECTED AS THE ``ITEM INVOLVED IN INCIDENT'' IN PART C3 OF THE REPORT. THE REVISED REPORT COLLECTS DATA ABOUT THE PIPE ADJACENT TO THE GIRTH WELD. (2) ``FUNCTION OF PIPELINE SYSTEM'' IS NULL IN PART E5F OF THE REPORT. THE REVISED REPORT COLLECTS THE FUNCTION OF THE PIPELINE SYSTEM FOR ALL INCIDENTS.** PART E5F OF THIS REPORT HAS BEEN COMPLETED.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — INCORRECT VALVE POSITION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $247,071 reported total cost, $132,541.573 in 1984 dollars, $326,283.48 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.