PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2017-02-27

Gas transmission and gathering incident in FOLSOM, SACRAMENTO County, CA. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 1 injuries, 0.22 NATURAL GAS released, $15,000 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: 20170026.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 2/27/2017 12:10.

Location detail: MP 11.77

Cause detail: OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION

Cause detail: ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017, AT 1215 HOURS, PG&E WAS NOTIFIED OF AN INCIDENT AT 990 RILEY STREET IN FOLSOM. AS PART OF PG&ES PIPELINE REPAIR OF THREE INDICATIONS IDENTIFIED ON DFM 0617-06 AT MILE POINT (MP) 11.77, THE CREW WELDED A SAVE A VALVE (SAV) ON THE 12-INCH STEEL TRANSMISSION PIPE. THE CREW CONNECTED THE SAV TO AN ASSEMBLY WHICH CONSISTED OF A 2-INCH DIAMETER 90 DEGREE ELBOW TO A 2-INCH DIAMETER NIPPLE, TO A 2-INCH DIAMETER 90 DEGREE ELBOW, WHICH CONNECTED TO A 4 TO 6-FEET LONG 2-INCH DIAMETER ALUMINUM STACK. IN THE PROCESS OF CLEARING THE FITTING OF METAL SHAVINGS FROM THE TAPPING PROCESS, A PORTION OF THE ASSEMBLY CAME LOOSE AND INJURED AN EMPLOYEE. THE EMPLOYEE WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL AND IS IN STABLE CONDITION. THE APPARENT CAUSE OF THE INCIDENT IS INCORRECT OPERATIONS. THE ROOT CAUSE THAT THERE IS NO STANDARD PROCEDURE TO REMOVE METAL SHAVINGS AND THE PROCEDURE DID NOT ADEQUATELY ADDRESS TEMPORARY VENT STACK CONFIGURATIONS. AS A RESULT OF THE INCIDENT, A SMALL GAS LEAK WAS BEING RELEASED TO ATMOSPHERE FROM THE SAV. THE FLOW OF GAS WAS STOPPED ON 3/1/17 AT 1747 HOURS. REPAIRS TO THE LEAK AND IN THE COURSE, THE THREE INDICATIONS WERE REMOVED BY REPLACING A SECTION OF PIPE, ON 3/2/17 AT 0313 HOURS. THE USE OF A BYPASS DURING THE REPAIRS RESULTED IN NO CUSTOMER IMPACT. POLICE DEPARTMENT, FIRE DEPARTMENT & MEDIA (FOX 40) WAS REPORTED ON-SITE. THE EVENT WAS REPORTED TO THE DOT (NRC# 1172063) AND CPUC DUE TO INJURY AND MEDIA PRESENCE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, serious incident.

PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $15,000 reported total cost, $7,332.251 in 1984 dollars, $18,057.077 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.