SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-05-10

Gas transmission and gathering incident in TEMPLETON, SAN LUIS OBISPO County, CA. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 11300 NATURAL GAS released, $250,000 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: 20130047.

Operator ID: 18484.

Reported incident date: 5/10/2013 13:15.

Location detail: 53.90

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY

Cause detail: NOTIFICATION ISSUE

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

Cause detail: CONTRACTOR WORKING FOR A RANCHER WAS DEEP RIPPING THE GROUND IN A VINEYARD AND STRUCK 10' HIGH PRESSURE DOT DEFINED TRANSMISSION LINE. LINE MARKERS WERE PRESENT AS WELL AS MARKINGS FROM A PREVIOUS USA REQUEST. THE CONTRACTOR PERFORMING THE RIPPING OPERATION DID NOT HAVE A CURRENT USA TICKET FOR THE WORK BEING PERFORMED. GAS WAS CONTROLLED BY CLOSING MAIN LINE VALVES ISOLATING A 10 MILE SECTION OF THE LINE. THIRTEEN CUSTOMERS WERE LEFT WITHOUT SERVICE. REPAIRS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED, ALL CUSTOMERS PUT BACK IN SERVICE. NO IGNITION, NO INJURIES. INVESTIGATION DETERMINED THAT CONTRACTOR WAS AWARE OF PIPELINE LOCATION, BUT FAILED TO RAISE RIPPER BEFORE CROSSING MARKED LINE. IN ADDITION, NO CURRENT USA TICKET FOR WORK BEING PERFORMED.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $319,000 reported total cost, $184,866.87 in 1984 dollars, $387,303.169 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.