PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-12-01

Gas transmission and gathering incident in STOCKTON, SAN JOAQUIN County, CA. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 4700 NATURAL GAS released, $465,000 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: 20120130.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 12/1/2012 8:40.

Location detail: 1.64

Cause detail: PREVIOUS DAMAGE DUE TO EXCAVATION ACTIVITY

Cause detail: MISCELLANEOUS ROOT CAUSES

Cause detail: PREVIOUS DAMAGE

Cause detail: ON DECEMBER 1, 2012 AT APPROXIMATELY 0840 HOURS, PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY (PG&E) WAS NOTIFIED OF A RELEASE OF GAS AT 3331 EAST MINER AVENUE IN THE CITY OF STOCKTON ON DISTRIBUTION FEEDER MAIN 1609-01, MILE POINT 1.64. A PG&E REPRESENTATIVE ARRIVED ON SCENE OF THE INCIDENT AT 0905 HOURS AND THE FLOW OF GAS WAS STOPPED AT 0956 HOURS. THE RELEASE OF GAS WAS DETERMINED TO BE THE RESULT OF A PIPELINE RUPTURE. THE SECTION OF RUPTURED PIPELINE WAS REMOVED AND TRANSPORTED TO A LABORATORY FOR FURTHER ANALYSIS. THE REMAINING PIPELINE WAS CAPPED IN THE FIELD. OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION, APPROXIMATELY SIX BLOCKS SURROUNDING THE RUPTURE SITE WERE EVACUATED AND THE FIRE DEPARTMENT SHUT OFF GAS SERVICES TO THE SURROUNDING AREA. SEVENTY-EIGHT CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCED GAS SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS. SERVICE WAS RESTORED ON 2100 HOURS, DECEMBER 1, 2012, VIA REDUNDANT LINES TO ALL CUSTOMERS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE "CAN'T-GET-INS." PG&E CREWS COMPLETED A BYPASS LINE AT THE RUPTURE LOCATION AT 0826 HOURS ON DECEMBER 2, 2012, RESTORING SERVICE TO THE REMAINING CUSTOMERS WHO WERE OUT OF SERVICE. THIS INCIDENT WAS REPORTED TO BOTH THE DOT AND THE CPUC BECAUSE THE COST OF DAMAGES EXCEEDED $50,000, AND THE VOLUME OF UNINTENTIONALLY RELEASED GAS WAS GREATER THAN 3 MMCF. IN ADDITION, SACRAMENTO MAJOR TV NEWS MEDIA CHANNELS 3, 10 AND 4 WERE OBSERVED ON-SCENE. PG&E DETERMINED THAT A ROOT CAUSE OF THE INCIDENT WAS PREVIOUS DAMAGE TO THE PIPE CAUSED BY AN ELECTRIC DEPARTMENT POLE AUGER DURING ELECTRIC POLE INSTALLATIONS IN 1996. PG&E INVESTIGATED THE OTHER SITES ALONG THE LINE WHERE POWER POLES WERE INSTALLED. FOUR ADDITIONAL PIPE LOCATIONS WERE IDENTIFIED AS HAVING SIMILAR DAMAGE; THESE DAMAGED SECTIONS WERE REPLACED AND STRENGTH TESTED TO RE-ESTABLISH AN MAOP OF 720 PSIG.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — PREVIOUS DAMAGE DUE TO EXCAVATION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $546,000 reported total cost, $292,512.522 in 1984 dollars, $703,868.92 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.