PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-03-25

Gas transmission and gathering incident in WEST SACRAMENTO, YOLO County, CA. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 NATURAL GAS 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: 20140045.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 3/25/2014 15:10.

Location detail: 10.1536

Cause detail: OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION

Cause detail: A PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC (PG&E) CONTRACTOR WAS PERFORMING WORK TO CUT AND CAP THE PREVIOUSLY DEACTIVATED LINE 172A PIPELINE. AT 1510 HOURS, THE CONTRACTOR'S EMPLOYEE BURNED A SMALL HOLE INTO WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS THE DEACTIVATED PIPE, AND OBSERVED A HISSING NOISE. WORK WAS HALTED AND A PG&E SUPERVISOR WAS CALLED TO THE SITE. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THE PIPE BEING WORKED ON WAS THE PRESSURIZED 16-INCH TRANSMISSION LINE L-116. THERE WERE NO INJURIES, NO IGNITION, AND NO MEDIA ON SITE. PG&E INITIATED EMERGENCY RESPONSE OPERATIONS, L-116 WAS DEPRESSURIZED AT 2245 HOURS ON 3/25/14 AND REPAIRS WERE COMPLETED BY WELDING A 2-INCH SAVE-A-VALVE TEE OVER THE SMALL HOLE. PRESSURE IN THE PIPELINE WAS RESTORED AT 0200 HOURS ON 3/26/14. SERVICE TO ONE CUSTOMER WAS INTERRUPTED. THE CONTRACTOR HAD A VALID USA TICKET, HOWEVER THE EXCAVATION AREA WAS NOT DELINEATED, THEREFORE, THERE WAS NOT AN OPPORTUNITY TO LOCATE AND MARK THE GAS FACILITIES WERE NOT PROPERLY IDENTIFIED AND MARKED. THE CONTRACTOR PROCEEDED TO PERFORM WORK ON THE ACTIVE LINE WITHOUT PROPERLY IDENTIFYING IF THE LINE WAS DEACTIVATED. COSTS TO MAKE REPAIRS WERE ESTIMATED TO EXCEED $50000 AT 0008 HOURS ON 3/26/14.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $53,125 reported total cost, $27,532.683 in 1984 dollars, $65,135.067 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.