COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2016-04-14

Gas transmission and gathering incident in RICHMOND, MADISON COUNTY County, KY. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 3242 NATURAL GAS released, $51,265 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: 20160038.

Operator ID: 2616.

Reported incident date: 4/14/2016 13:32.

Location detail: VS-6024

Cause detail: OTHER EQUIPMENT FAILURE

Cause detail: ON APRIL 14, 2016, WHILE A CONTRACTOR WAS PREPARING A STOPPLE FOR REMOVAL AFTER SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETING AN IN-LINE INSPECTION (ILI) RUN, THE STOPPLE PLUG FAILED LEADING TO AN UNINTENDED RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS (MATERIAL) INTO ATMOSPHERE. THE MATERIAL RELEASE WAS RECORDED AT 13:32 EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST) ON LINE KA-1-N NEAR THE TOWN OF RICHMOND, MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY. LINE KA-1-N IS A 12 INCH TRANSMISSION PIPELINE THAT IS OWNED, OPERATED AND MAINTAINED BY COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC (COLUMBIA). LINE KA-1-N CRITICAL VALVES WERE MANUALLY OPERATED BY COLUMBIA OPERATIONS PERSONNEL TO ISOLATE THE AFFECTED SEGMENT TO ENSURE THAT THE AREA WAS SAFE. AFTER THE VERTICAL VALVES WERE FULLY CLOSED, THE MATERIAL STOPPED VENTING INTO ATMOSPHERE. AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE, A NEARBY SHOP AND A BANK WERE TEMPORARILY EVACUATED. THE OCCUPANTS WERE CLEARED TO RETURN TO THEIR BUSINESSES AFTER THE AREA WAS MADE SAFE. AFTER IDENTIFYING THE PROBABLE CAUSE OF THIS UNINTENDED RELEASE (THE STOPPLE PLUG), THE STOPPLE WAS CUT AND REMOVED BY THE CONTRACTOR FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS. THEREAFTER, A PRE-TESTED SECTION OF PIPE WAS INSTALLED, WELDED AND NON-DESTRUCTIVELY TESTED, AFTER WHICH THE LINE WAS RETURNED BACK INTO SERVICE ON APRIL 15, 2016, AT 03:00. COLUMBIA AND THE CONTRACTOR CONDUCTED INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION TO IDENTIFY THE ROOT CAUSE BEHIND THE STOPPLE PLUG FAILURE. THE INVESTIGATION CONCLUDED THAT THE CAUSE WAS DUE TO EQUIPMENT FAILURE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — OTHER EQUIPMENT FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $91,982 reported total cost, $50,628.93 in 1984 dollars, $113,408.381 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.