COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION CORP — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-09-28

Gas transmission and gathering incident in CORNING, NY. Reported cause: OTHER INCIDENT CAUSE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 22119.6 NATURAL GAS released, $450 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: 20110379.

Operator ID: 2616.

Reported incident date: 9/28/2011 7:00.

Cause detail: MISCELLANEOUS

Cause detail: ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2011, THE COMPRESSOR STATION ENGINEER DISCOVERED THAT THE 2-INCH VENT PIPE WAS BLOWING NATURAL GAS WHEN HE ARRIVED AT THE SITE. HE MANUALLY TRIPPED THE SOLENOID VALVE TO SHUT-OFF THE GAS FLOWING THROUGH THE VENT PIPE. THE COMPRESSOR STATION WAS IN BY-PASS MODE AND NOT OPERATING. INVESTIGATION OF THE EVENT RESULTED IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF A 'CAUSAL FACTORS' . THE ELECTRONIC ESD SYSTEM AT CORNING CS WAS UNNECESSARILY ACTIVATED. THE FUEL GAS ESD BLOCK VALVE DID NOT CLOSE AS DESIGNED . SINCE THE FUEL GAS BLOCK VALVE FAILED TO CLOSE, GAS FROM THE PIPELINE WAS VENTED FOR AN EXTENDED DURATION OF TIME. IN LIEU OF THIS INCIDENT AND ITS INVESTIGATION, SEVERAL CORRECTIVE ACTIONS WERE IMPLEMENTED AND EXECUTED AS FOLLOWS: 1. THE ETHERNET CONNECTION BETWEEN THE REMOTE I/O PANELS AND THE GUARDLOGIC PLC SHOULD BE ELIMINATED, OR A REDUNDANT ETHERNET COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE REMOTE I/O PANELS AND THE GUARDLOGIC PLC SHOULD BE INSTALLED. HARD-WIRING THESE DEVICES MAY PROVIDE THE HIGHEST RELIABILITY. 2. INSTALL POINT-OF-USE FILTRATION ON ALL THE ESD OPERATOR CONTROLS THAT EMPLOY VERSA VALVES. IN ADDITION, IMPLEMENT THE MANUFACTURER'S RECOMMENDATION TO AVOID THE USE OF TEFLON-TAPE ON CONTROL TUBING FOR VERSA VALVES. THE SMALL DIAMETER OF THE INTERNALLY DRILLED PASSAGES OF THESE VALVES IS PRONE TO BLOCKAGE BY DIRT AND DEBRIS. 3. INSPECT THE CORNING CS VERSA VALVES AND OTHER SIMILAR SHUTTLE VALVES FOR CONTAMINATION BY DIRT AND DEBRIS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: ALL OTHER CAUSES — MISCELLANEOUS.

PHMSA indexed costs: $86,716 reported total cost, $60,765.462 in 1984 dollars, $74,908.799 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.