SUNOCO LOGISTICS L.P. — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2006-12-27

Hazardous liquid incident in SYLVANIA, BRADFORD County, PA. Reported cause: 22. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, NO released, $6,000 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: 20070026.

Operator ID: 18718.

Reported incident date: 12/27/2006.

Cause detail: RUPTURED OR LEAKING SEAL/PUMP PACKING

Cause detail: ON DECEMBER 27, 2006 AT 1645 HOURS, CONTROL CENTER RECEIVED A TELEPHONE CALL, FROM A PASSING MOTORIST, OF A 6-INCH HIGH FIRE AT SYLVANIA PUMP STATION, LOCATED ON THE OUTSIDE MAIN LINE PUMP. THE PUMP WAS SHUTDOWN AND LOCAL FIRE DEPARTMENT NOTIFIED ALONG WITH AREA PIPELINE PERSONNEL. THE FIRE WAS OUT PRIOR TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT AND PIPELINE PERSONNEL AT ABOUT 1700 HOURS. IMMEDIATE OBSERVATIONS OF THE SCENE DETERMINED THAT THE FIRE WAS LIMITED TO THE AREA OF THE PUMP OUTBOARD SEAL AND BEARINGS WITH NO EVIDENCE OF LEAKING OR SPILLED GASOLINE ON THE PUMP EQUIPMENT OR GROUND SURROUNDING THE PUMP FOUNDATION. INVESTIGATION OF THE INCIDENT DETERMINED THAT THE PUMP SEAL AND BEARING FAILED. THE FAILURE RESULTED IN THE AREA SURROUNDING THE OUTBOARD SEAL AND BEARING TO OVERHEAT, WHICH IGNITED RESIDUAL LUBRICANTS AND POSSIBLY GASOLINE MIST LEAKING FROM THE SEAL AREA. THE FIRE BURNED ITSELF OUT AFTER RESIDUAL LUBRICANTS ON THE PUMP WERE CONSUMED AND ELIMINATION OF POSSIBLE PUMP SEAL MISTING ONCE THE PUMP WAS SHUT DOWN. THE DAMAGE TO THE PUMP SEALS AND BEARING HOUSING REQUIRED THE PUMP TO BE SENT TO A REPAIR SHOP. THE INVESTIGATION ALSO FOUND THAT THE PUMP DE-STAGING, COMPLETED SOME 15 YEARS AGO, RESULTED IN A THRUST IMBALANCE OF THE SHAFT AND LIKELY CONTRIBUTED TO THE BEARING FAILURE AND RESULTANT FIRE. ADDITIONAL WORK WAS PREFORMED ON THE PUMP TO HYDRAULICALLY REBALANCE THE PUMP INTERNALS, ELIMINATE FOUND PUMP CASE WASH-OUTS AND TO REPAIR THE SHAFT. THE LINE WAS RUN AT A REDUCED RATE WITHOUT SYLVANIA PUMP STATION DURING THE PUMP REPAIR PROCESS AND WAS RETURNED TO FULL SERVICE ON JANUARY 18, 2007 WHEN THE REPAIRED PUMP WAS REINSTALLED. UPDATED BY PHMSA ON 11/24/2015 (COMMODITY CLASSIFICATION).

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — RUPTURED OR LEAKING SEAL/PUMP PACKING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $6,000 reported total cost, $3,508.604 in 1984 dollars, $8,640.613 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.