INDIANA GAS CO INC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2019-01-20

Gas transmission and gathering incident in BROWNSBURG, HENDRICKS County, IN. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 15900 NATURAL GAS released, $100 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: 20190028.

Operator ID: 8070.

Reported incident date: 1/20/2019 0:01.

Location detail: HCJ STATION

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: VECTREN'S HENDRICKS COUNTY JUNCTION (HCJ) IS A NATURAL GAS TRANSMISSION PIPELINE WITH A COMPRESSOR STATION. HCJ IS A CENTRAL STATION THAT DIRECTS THE FLOW OF GAS INTO VECTREN'S NORTH, SOUTH & EAST SYSTEMS. DURING THIS GAS RELEASE INCIDENT, VECTREN'S SCADA DATA SHOWS THAT NONE OF THE PIPELINES WERE OVER-PRESSURIZED. THE PRESSURES AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT WERE WELL WITHIN NORMAL OPERATING PRESSURE RANGES. THIS GAS RELEASE INCIDENT WAS CAUSED BY MOISTURE FREEZING IN THE CONTROL LINE TO THE RELIEF VALVES CAUSING THEM TO OPEN AND VENT NATURAL GAS TO ATMOSPHERE. LOW PRESSURE LIMITS ON SCADA SYSTEM ALERTED GAS CONTROLLERS TO POTENTIAL ISSUE, WHO IN TURN NOTIFIED SUPERVISION, WHICH DISPATCHED 1ST RESPONDER PERSONNEL, WHO ARRIVED AND INVESTIGATED AND RECTIFIED THE SITUATION. TEMPORARY HEAT TAPE, INSULATION AND COVERING OVER THE SECTIONS OF THE CONTROL LINES AND SYSTEM COMPONENTS THAT WERE INVOLVED IN THE FREEZE-OFF WERE PERFORMED THAT WEEK. VECTREN WILL BE MAKING THESE MORE PERMANENT SOLUTIONS LATER THIS SPRING/SUMMER. NOTE: THIS IS INTENDED TO REPLACE REPORT NUMBER 20190015 - 31671 WHICH WAS MISTAKENLY SUBMITTED VIA THE FORM PHMSA F 7100.1.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $52,074 reported total cost, $53,646.565 in 1984 dollars, $66,216.986 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.