PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-12-10

Gas transmission and gathering incident in HINKLEY, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY County, CA. Reported cause: OTHER INCIDENT CAUSE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 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: 20150002.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 12/10/2014 9:00.

Location detail: MP 1.2

Cause detail: MISCELLANEOUS

Cause detail: AT APPROXIMATELY 0900 HOURS, A PG&E EMPLOYEE WAS PERFORMING A ROUTINE PATROL OF TRANSMISSION PIPELINE L-314 (ABOUT A MILE FROM THE HINKLEY COMPRESSOR STATION, NEAR MILE POINT 1.2) WHEN THE EMPLOYEE IDENTIFIED A SUSPICIOUS DEVICE ON THE GROUND. THE DEVICE WAS DISCOVERED ABOVE TWO BURIED PIPELINES (A PG&E NATURAL GAS TRANSMISSION PIPELINE AND A MOJAVE WATER DISTRICT PIPELINE) AND THE PIPELINE ROUTE WAS CLEARLY MARKED AS SHARED BY PG&E AND THE MOJAVE WATER DISTRICT. THE PG&E EMPLOYEE MOVED THE DEVICE ABOUT 2,000 FEET ALONG THE ROAD, TO A LOCATION ABOVE THE RIGHT-OF-WAY SHARED BY PG&E AND THE KINDER MORGAN COMPANY, PRIOR TO REPORTING THE DEVICE TO HIS SUPERVISOR. THE SUPERVISOR THEN REPORTED THE MATTER TO PG&E'S CORPORATE SECURITY DEPARTMENT AND THE SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT. THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT PATROL DEPUTY ARRIVED ON SCENE AT APPROXIMATELY 0930 HOURS. UPON SEEING THE DEVICE, THE DEPUTY ESTABLISHED A ONE MILE PERIMETER AROUND THE DEVICE'S LOCATION, INSTRUCTED HINKLEY COMPRESSOR STATION EMPLOYEES TO SHELTER IN PLACE, AND CALLED THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT BOMB SQUAD. PG&E'S CORPORATE SECURITY DEPARTMENT DISPATCHED AN INVESTIGATOR TO THE SCENE WHO ESTABLISHED CONTACT WITH HINKLEY COMPRESSOR STATION AND SAN BERNARDINO SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT. BOMB SQUAD PERSONNEL ARRIVED AT APPROXIMATELY 1300 HOURS. THE BOMB SQUAD EXAMINED THE DEVICE, THEN REMOVED IT TO A SAFE AREA NEARBY AND RENDERED IT SAFE AT APPROXIMATELY 1345 HOURS. PG&E'S CORPORATE SECURITY DEPARTMENT WAS ADVISED SHORTLY THEREAFTER THAT THE SHERIFF'S BOMB TECHNICIANS DECLARED IT WAS A FUNCTIONAL DEVICE, WHICH COULD HAVE EXPLODED IF IT HAD AN OUTSIDE POWER SOURCE, WHICH IT LACKED. THE DEVICE WAS DESCRIBED AS A PVC PIPE, ABOUT TWO INCHES IN DIAMETER, SEVERAL INCHES LONG, WITH END CAPS ATTACHED. THE SAN BERNARDINO SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT ADVISED THE DEVICE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POWERFUL ENOUGH TO AFFECT THE PIPES HAD IT EXPLODED ABOVE THEM. CORPORATE SECURITY COMMUNICATED THE DETAILS OF THE INCIDENT TO THE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION AND THE RIVERSIDE RESIDENT AGENCY OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION. FROM DECEMBER 10 TO 11, PG&E RE-INSPECTED THE PIPELINE L-314 ROUTE, ALONG WITH OTHER PG&E PIPELINE ROUTES IN THE AREA, TO LOOK FOR OTHER DEVICES. NO OTHER DEVICES WERE DISCOVERED. THERE WAS NO RELEASE OF GAS, NO INJURIES OR FATALITIES, NO MAJOR MEDIA ON SCENE AND DAMAGES ARE LESS THAN $50,000. NO CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCED GAS SERVICE INTERRUPTION AND NO GAS FACILITIES WERE SHUT DOWN. THIS INCIDENT WAS REPORT TO CPUC AND DOT BECAUSE OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EVENT. (PLEASE NOTE THAT THE RESPONSES TO PART E, QUESTIONS 5A, 5B, AND 5C OF THIS PHMSA 7100 REPORT ARE MERELY PLACEHOLDERS AND DO NOT APPLY SINCE THERE WAS NO RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS. THE PHMSA 7100 REPORT FORM DOES NOT ALLOW THESE FIELDS TO BE LEFT BLANK.)

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: ALL OTHER CAUSES — MISCELLANEOUS.

PHMSA indexed costs: $0 reported total cost, $0 in 1984 dollars, $0 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.