BUCKEYE PARTNERS, LP — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2014-07-25

Hazardous liquid incident in BOOTHWYN, DELAWARE County, PA. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.05 REFINED AND/OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT (NON-HVL) WHICH IS A LIQUID AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $248,000 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: 20140297.

Operator ID: 1845.

Reported incident date: 7/25/2014 18:15.

Cause detail: LIGHTNING

Cause detail: DURING A ROUTINE WALK AROUND OF THE BOOTH STATION ON JULY 26, 2014, THE NUMBER 81 OIL SPLITTER VALVE WAS DISCOVERED LEAKING ULSD. APPROXIMATELY 0.05 BARRELS OF PRODUCT WAS RELEASED. THE MATERIAL WAS CLEANED UP WITH SORBENT PADS, NO REMEDIATION IS EXPECTED. THE RELEASE WAS INITIALLY ATTRIBUTED TO AN O-RING FAILURE. UPON OPENING THE VALVE TO REPLACE THE O-RING, SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO THE VALVE ITSELF WAS DISCOVERED. AT THE TIME THE RELEASE WAS DISCOVERED IT WAS BELIEVED THAT REPLACING THE O-RING WOULD BE THE ONLY REPAIR NECESSARY TO VALVE. SINCE THE RELEASE WAS 0.05 BARRELS AND THE COST INVOLVED FOR THIS RELEASE WOULD NOT HAVE EXCEEDED THE REPORTING THRESHOLD THE NRC WAS NOT INITIALLY NOTIFIED. UPON OPENING THE VALVE AND DISCOVERING THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE TO THE VALVE, THE REPORTING THRESHOLD, MONETARILY, WAS EXCEEDED. THE NRC WAS CONTACTED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER THE DISCOVERY IT WAS DECIDED, DUE TO THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE THAT THE VALVE WOULD NEED TO BE REPLACED. THE VALVE IS BLOCKED AND ISOLATED PENDING THE REPAIR. UPDATE 12/22/2014. THE VALVE HAS BEEN REPLACED AND NO FURTHER REMEDIATION IS REQUIRED. THE CAUSE OF THE RELEASE HAS BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO A NEARBY LIGHTNING STRIKE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — LIGHTNING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $248,000 reported total cost, $125,839.692 in 1984 dollars, $309,904.432 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.