EL PASO NATURAL GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-09-09

Gas transmission and gathering incident in FARWELL, PARMER County, TX. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 3550 NATURAL GAS released, $28,407 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: 20150119.

Operator ID: 4280.

Reported incident date: 9/9/2015 14:30.

Location detail: MP 37+4500

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY

Cause detail: NOTIFICATION ISSUE

Cause detail: NO NOTIFICATION MADE TO THE ONE-CALL CENTER/811

Cause detail: ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 KINDER MORGAN (KM) OPERATIONS PERSONNEL RECEIVED A CALL OF A POSSIBLE LINE STRIKE ON EPNG 2125 LINE FROM ATMOS. THE LINE 2125 IS LOCATED NEAR FARWELL, TEXAS IN PARMER COUNTY, TEXAS. KM OPERATIONS SPECIALIST AT STATION 169 (HEREFORD) RECEIVED A CALL (2:30 PM-LOCAL TIME) FROM AN ATMOS EMPLOYEE STATING THAT HE THOUGHT OUR EPNG LINE HAD BEEN STRUCK. KM OPS DISPATCHED THREE (3) OPERATION SPECIALISTS TO THE ALLEGED LINE STRIKE SITE TO VERIFY THE LINE STRIKE. THERE WERE VISIBLE SIGNS AROUND THE VICINITY. THE KM SPECIALIST, WHO ARRIVED ON SITE, CONFIRMED THAT THE 8" EPNG 2125 LINE HAD BEEN STRUCK AND WAS VENTING GAS. HIS TIME OF ARRIVAL AT THE SCENE WAS 3:30 PM LOCAL TIME. KM DISCOVERED THAT THE PIPELINE HAD GOUGE IN IT AND LEARNED THAT A COUNTY ROAD MAINTAINER WAS DIGGING A BAR DITCH FOR THE LOCAL FARMER AND ACCIDENTALLY STRUCK THE LINE. MAINLINE VALVES 6 AND 7 WERE CLOSED TO ISOLATE THE LINE AND IMMEDIATELY STARTED REPAIRS AND ALL REPAIR WORK CONCLUDED ON 9/10/15 AT 8:50 PM. THE CONTROL ROOM FOR EPNG RECEIVED AN ALARM ON THE EPNG SCADA SYSTEM AND IMMEDIATELY STARTED WORKING WITH OUR FIELD MEASUREMENT TECHNICIAN TO TROUBLESHOOT THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE ALARM. GIVEN THE REMOTE LOCATION OF THE SITE, IT TOOK OUR FIELD KM PERSONNEL SOME TIME TO ARRIVE ON SITE AND CONFIRM THAT OUR EPNG LINE WAS STRUCK AND RELEASING GAS. UPON CONFIRMATION OF THE LINE STRIKE AND RELEASE OF GAS, KM PERSONNEL IMMEDIATELY STARTED ISOLATING THE LINE SEGMENT AFFECTED BY A 3RD PARTY LINE STRIKE.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $42,640 reported total cost, $26,265.049 in 1984 dollars, $51,569.224 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.