TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE CO (EL PASO) — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-06-21

Gas transmission and gathering incident in WAYNESVILLE, WAYNE County, TN. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 6791 NATURAL GAS released, $175,000 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: 20120072.

Operator ID: 19160.

Reported incident date: 6/21/2012 16:30.

Location detail: 556-1 + 5.78

Cause detail: EARTH MOVEMENT, NOT DUE TO HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS

Cause detail: TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE (TGP) COMPANY OPERATIONS PERSONNEL DISCOVERED INDICATIONS OF WHAT APPEARED TO BE A NATURAL GAS LEAK DURING THEIR WORK RELATIVE TO ANOMALY DIGS FOLLOWING THE RESULTS OF A SMART PIG RUN ON TGP'S 500-1 PIPELINE IN WAYNE COUNTY, TN. EXCAVATION IN THE VICINITY OF THE SUSPECTED LEAK REVEALED A CRACK FROM WHICH GAS WAS LEAKING IN TGP'S 2" LATERAL LINE NEAR THE TAP OF ITS 500-1 PIPELINE. THE APPARENT CAUSE OF THE LEAK WAS ASSYMETRICAL LOADING (I.E. SETTLEMENT) OF THE SOIL BETWEEN THE CARRIER PIPE AND THE TAP LINE, WHICH RESULTED IN EXCESSIVE STRESSES ON THE 2" PIPE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — EARTH MOVEMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $195,978 reported total cost, $109,691.126 in 1984 dollars, $248,502.711 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.