COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION CORP — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-01-21

Gas transmission and gathering incident in CAMERON, MARSHALL County, WV. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 3176 NATURAL GAS released, $0 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: 20120015.

Operator ID: 2616.

Reported incident date: 1/21/2012 8:18.

Location detail: C88-108

Cause detail: COMPRESSOR OR COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: AFTER AN INVESTIGAITON WAS COMPLETED INTO THIS REPORTABLE ICNIDENT, A CAUSAL FACTOR WAS IDENTIFED TO BE THE ROOT CAUSE BEHIND THIS REPORTABEL INCIDENT. THIS CAUSAL FACTOR WAS THE COMPRESSED AIR USED IN THE PILOT AIR SYSTEM THAT IS PART OF THE COMPRESSOR SATTION ESD SYSTEM. THE DEW POINT OF THE CONTROL AIR WAS ABOVE THE AMBIENT TEMPERATURE AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT DUE TO EQUIPMENT FAILURE DURING THE FALL OF 2011. INDICATIONS TO THE PRESENCE OF MOISTURE WAS FOUND IN THE BULK AIR STORAGE TANKS WHICH SUPPLY AIR TO ALL THE CONTROL SYSTEMS AT THE STATION. IN LIEU OF THIS FINDING, A NUMBER OF RECOMMENDATIONS WERE ISSUED AND IMPLEMENTED ACCORDINGLY. THE RECOMMENDATIONS WERE: (I) INSTALL NEW COMPRESSED AIR DRYING SYSTEM INCLUDING A NEW AFTERCOOLER, AIR DRYER AND WATER TRAPS. (INSTALLED AND FULLY FUNCTIONAL AS OF NOVEMBER 2, 2012.) (II) INSTALL FILTER/DRYER ON PILOT AIR SUPPLY SYSTEM. (INSTALLED AND WAS IN OPERATION AS OF JANUARY 31, 2013.) (III) ELIMINATE EXISTING MOISTURE IN THE ESD PILOT AIR SYSTEM. ACCUMULATED MOISTURE WAS REMOVED INTO OUTSIDE STORAGE TANKS. SMALL ESD STORAGE TANK CHECKED, NO WATER FOUND. PILOT AIR LINES TO BE PURGED WHEN NEW AIR SYSTEM IS INSTALLED. (COMPLETED ON DECEMBER 3, 2012.) (IV) TRAIN ADALINE COMPRESSOR STATION OPERATIONS PERSONNEL REGARDING THE IMPORTANCE OF THE AIR DRYING EQUIPMENT AND THE DOWNSTREAM SYSTEMS. (COMPLETED ON JANUARY 31, 2013.)

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — PUMP/COMPRESSOR OR PUMP/COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $9,877 reported total cost, $8,248.235 in 1984 dollars, $10,127.579 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.