ENTERPRISE CRUDE PIPELINE LLC — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2010-11-16

Hazardous liquid incident in FREEPORT, BRAZORIA County, TX. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.71 CRUDE OIL released, $500 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: 20100248.

Operator ID: 30829.

Reported incident date: 11/16/2010 13:00.

Cause detail: OTHER EQUIPMENT FAILURE

Cause detail: VALVE WOULD NOT OPERATE SEVERAL MONTHS AGO AND OPERATIONS LEFT THE VALVE PARTIALLY OPENED WHILE AFTER ATTEMPTING TO OPERATE IT, THEY DID NOT REALIZE THEY LEFT IT PARTIALLY OPENED. TWO MONTHS LATER, A LIGHTER CRUDE WAS PUT THROUGH THE VALVE, THIS PRODUCT ATE AWAY AT THE PLUG OF HEAVIER CRUDE THAT HAD CLOGGED UP THE VALVE CAUSING THE LIGHTER PRODUCT TO FLOW THROUGH THE VALVE THAT WAS PARTIALLY LEFT OPENED DUE TO THE CLOG AND TO SUBSEQUENTLY LEAK; THEN TO OVERFILL THE SUMP. OPERATED THE VALVE TO FULLY CLOSED. VALVE APPEARED TO BE CLOSED BECAUSE WHEN OPERATIONS TRIED TO OPEN THE VALVE WHICH WAS UNDERGROUND, NO PRODUCT WENT THROUGH IT AND CONTINUED TO HOLD PRODUCT BACK FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. OPERATIONS CONCLUDED THAT THE VALVE WAS CLOSED AND DID NOT REALIZE IT WAS VERY MINUTELY OPEN UNTIL THE LIGHTER CRUDE WASHED OUT THE HEAVIER CRUDE PLUG. THIS WAS THE BALL VALVE DRAINS THE TERMINAL PIPING INTO THE SUMP. 8-22-2011 - THE DRAIN BALL VALVE IS WORKING PROPERLY - NEW HANDLE WAS BUILT AND INSTALLED ON VALVE.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — OTHER EQUIPMENT FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $29,185 reported total cost, $15,968.979 in 1984 dollars, $39,326.681 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.