SCM OPERATIONS, LLC — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2021-02-13

Hazardous liquid incident in Not Within a Municipality, REEVES County, TX. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.8 HVL OR OTHER FLAMMABLE OR TOXIC FLUID WHICH IS A GAS AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $0 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: 20210070.

Operator ID: 40204.

Reported incident date: 2/13/2021 4:31.

Location detail: MP 0

Cause detail: VALVE LEFT OR PLACED IN WRONG POSITION, BUT NOT RESULTING IN A TANK, VESSEL, OR SUMP/SEPARATOR OVERFLOW OR FACILITY OVERPRESSURE

Cause detail: AT 4:31 AM SATURDAY MORNING (2/13/21) SCM OPERATIONS, LLC'S 3RD PARTY CONTROL ROOM (MIDSTREAM INTEGRITY SERVICES) RECEIVED A PROPANE HI ALARM FOR THE BRANDYWINE NGL METER STATION. MIS IMMEDIATELY IMPLEMENTED SCM CALLOUT PROTOCOL AND SUCCESSFULLY REPORTED THE ALARM TO SCM LEAD PIPELINE OPERATOR AT 4:48 AM. SCM LEAD PIPELINE OPERATOR NOTIFIED SCM LEAD MEASUREMENT TECHNICIAN AT 5:00 AM. AT 5:30 AM SCM LEAD MEASUREMENT TECHNICIAN, ACKNOWLEDGED RECEIPT OF THE NOTIFICATION. WEATHER AND ROAD CONDITIONS AT 5:30 AM WERE DETERMINED TO BE HAZARDOUS DUE TO THE ONGOING WINTER STORM (SNOW AND ICE) AND, THEREFORE, UNSAFE FOR TRAVEL TO THE BRANDYWINE SITE. THE SYSTEM CONTINUED TO BE MONITORED BY THE MIS CONTROL ROOM. NO ADDITIONAL ALARMS OR ABNORMAL OPERATING PARAMETERS OCCURRED AT THE SITE. WEATHER CONDITIONS CONTINUED TO BE EVALUATED BY SCM OPERATIONS PERSONNEL AND WERE DISPATCHED TO THE SITE AS SOON AS ROAD CONDITIONS ALLOWED, APPROXIMATELY 9:00 AM. UPON ARRIVAL AT THE SITE AT 9:20 AM SCM PERSONNEL SAW FROST ON THE PROVING LOOP OF THE METER STATION AND CONCLUDED THERE WAS AN NGL LEAK. SUCH OBSERVATION IS CONSIDERED CONFIRMED DISCOVERY OF THE LEAK AND WAS MADE AT APPROXIMATELY 9:20 AM. THE SOURCE OF THE LEAK WAS DETERMINED TO BE A LOOSE HAMMER UNION AT THE END OF THE PROVING LOOP. THE HAMMER UNION WAS SUFFICIENTLY TIGHTENED, WHICH STOPPED THE LEAK AT APPROXIMATELY 10:00 AM. SCM'S INTERNAL INVESTIGATION RESULTS DETERMINED THAT THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE LEAK WAS THAT THE PROVING ISOLATION VALVE WAS NOT FULLY CLOSED ALLOWING NGL TO REACH THE HAMMER UNION WHICH WAS LOOSE. THE ROOT CAUSE WAS A MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FAILURE TO ADEQUATELY AND COMPLETELY DEFINE AND DOCUMENT THE METER PROVING PROCEDURE IN THE METER PROVING CHECKLIST. SCM'S CORRECTIVE ACTIONS TO MITIGATE RECURRENCE ARE: 1 - MODIFY CHECKLIST - OPERATIONS TO MODIFY THE METER PROVING CHECKLIST TO INCLUDE CLOSURE AND LOCKOUT OF PROVING LOOP ISOLATION VALVES UPON COMPLETION OF METER PROVING. 2 - TRACK UPDATE - CORRECTIVE ACTION WILL BE ADDED TO FRONTLINE SYSTEM FOR THE MODIFICATION OF THE METER PROVING CHECKLIST 3 - COMMUNICATE RCA - EHS AND OPERATIONS WILL DISTRIBUTE THE ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS AND COMMUNICATE LEARNINGS TO ALL FIELD PERSONNEL

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — INCORRECT VALVE POSITION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $2,275 reported total cost, $1,020.563 in 1984 dollars, $2,513.331 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.