PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-09-19

Gas transmission and gathering incident in NOVATO, MARIN County, CA. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 11 NATURAL GAS released, $1,740,000 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: 20110378.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 9/19/2011 18:45.

Location detail: 10.38

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: ON THE MORNING OF SEPTEMBER, 19, 2011, PG&E PERSONNEL DISCOVERED GAS READINGS AT THE CASING VENTS FOR A 20-INCH CASING SURROUNDING 16-INCH STEEL GAS TRANSMISSION LINE L-21G UNDER REDWOOD BOULEVARD, SOUTH OF ATHERTON AVENUE IN NOVATO. PG&E CREWS EXCAVATED THE PIPE AND CASING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROADWAY IN AN ATTEMPT TO IDENTIFY THE LOCATION OF THE LEAK. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SOURCE OF THE LEAK WAS NOT AT EITHER SIDE OF THE ROADWAY, BUT APPEARS TO BE LOCATED SOMEWHERE UNDER THE ROADWAY. DUE TO THE LOCATION OF THE LEAK IT IS NOT FEASIBLE TO ATTEMPT TO REPAIR THE LEAK. A NEW PIPE WILL BE INSTALLED UNDER THE ROADWAY TO REPLACE THE LEAKING PIPE. MOBILIZATION TO START CONSTRUCTION IS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN OCTOBER 19 OR 20, 2011. PLANS ARE ALSO BEING DEVELOPED FOR THE REMOVAL OF THE OLD PIPE TO FACILITATE THE ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS OF THE LEAK. PG&E WILL PROVIDE THE RESULTS OF THE ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS TO THE CPUC UPON COMPLETION OF THE ANALYSIS. THERE WERE NO INJURIES OR FATALITIES AS A RESULT OF THIS INCIDENT. DAMAGES ARE EXPECTED TO EXCEED $50,000 FOLLOWING FURTHER EVALUATION ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2011 AFTERWHICH THE DOT WAS NOTIFIED. THIS INCIDENT INITIALLY BECAME REPORTABLE WHEN SAN FRANCISCO MAJOR MEDIA TV CHANNEL 5 WAS OBSERVED ON SCENE AT 1845 HOURS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $1,999,000 reported total cost, $1,072,998.624 in 1984 dollars, $2,638,133.555 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.