COLUMBIA GAS OF VIRGINIA INC — Gas distribution — incident on 2002-02-19

Gas distribution incident in MIDLOTHIAN, CHESTERFIELD County, VA. Reported cause: OTHER. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 1 injuries, $120,000 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: 20020047.

Operator ID: 2604.

Reported incident date: 20020219.

Location detail: NO DATA

Cause detail: AN UNINTENTIONAL RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS AND SUBSEQUENT IGNITION CONSUMED A PLASTIC PIPELINE FACILITY AND APPURTENANCES PRESENT DURING TIE-IN AND BYPASS OPERATIONS ASSOCIATED TO THE RELOCATION OF AN EXISTING 6" PLASTIC MAIN. THE RELEASE OF GAS OCCURRED AFTER THE NEW PLASTIC MAIN HAD BEEN TIED IN TO THE EXISTING MAIN AND ONE OF TWO - 2" PLASTIC BYPASSES REMAINED TO BE ABANDONED. EACH PLASTIC BYPASS UTILIZED TWO - 2" HIGH VOLUME TAPPING TEES AND A SHORT SECTION OF 2" PLASTIC PIPE BETWEEN EACH TEE. ALTHOUGH THE CAUSE OF THE RELEASE OF GAS IS NOT KNOWN FOR CERTAIN, THE RELEASE OF GAS MAY HAVE OCCURRED DUE TO THE ABSENCE OF, OR DAMAGE TO A NEOPRENE O-RING BETWEEN THE TAPPING WRENCH AND THE HIGH VOLUME TAPPING TEE, WHICH PERMITTED GAS TO ESCAPE. DURING NORMAL TAPPING OPERATIONS, GAS IS CONTAINED WITHIN THE HIGH VOLUME TAPPING TEE AND TAPPING TEE WRENCH CONFIGURATION. THE SOURCE OF IGNITION IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN STATIC ELECTRICITY GENERATED AS A RESULT OF SEATING THE TAPPING TEE CUTTER IN PREPARATION FOR ABANDONMENT OF THE SECOND 2" BYPASS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, serious incident.

PHMSA standardized cause: ALL OTHER CAUSES — MISCELLANEOUS.

PHMSA indexed costs: $120,000 reported total cost, $77,943.026 in 1984 dollars, $191,949.686 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.