NORTHERN NATURAL GAS CO (ENRON) — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2002-02-22

Gas transmission and gathering incident in SIOUX FALLS, DAKOTA County, NE. Reported cause: 13. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, $73,000 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: 20020032.

Operator ID: 13750.

Reported incident date: 2/22/2002.

Cause detail: VANDALISM

Cause detail: LEAKING GAS WAS REPORTED BY A CONTRACTOR WHO WAS CHANGING LIGHT BULBS ON THE MISSOURI RIVER BRIDGE, AN AERIAL PIPELINE CROSSING OWNED BY NNG. THE GAS WAS LEAKING FROM A HOLE IN THE LOWER QUADRANT OF THE PIPE ABOUT 30 FEET ABOVE GROUND 35 FEET FROM THE WEST BRIDGE SUSPENSION LEG. INTERVIEWS WITH PERSONS WORKING IN THE VICINITY INDICATE THAT THE GAS MAY HAVE BEEN LEAKING FOR AS LONG AS TWO WEEKS BUT IT WAS NOT REPORTED BECAUSE IT WAS NOT DISCERNABLE FROM OTHER TRAFFIC AND INDUSTRIAL NOISE IN THE AREA. THE PUNCTURE WAS APPARENTLY CAUSED BY A LARGE CALIBER FIRE ARM. NO REMANTS OF PROJECTILE WERE FOUND. THE AFFECTED SECTION OF PIPE WAS ISOLATED, BLOWN DOWN, AND REPAIRED. NO DELIVERIES WERE INTERRUPTED AND THE PIPELINE WAS RETURNED TO SERVICE FOLLOWING REPAIR.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: OTHER OUTSIDE FORCE DAMAGE — INTENTIONAL DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $73,000 reported total cost, $68,441.801 in 1984 dollars, $88,046.447 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.