COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-09-08

Gas transmission and gathering incident in PIKEVILLE, PIKE County, KY. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 9072 NATURAL GAS released, $300,000 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: 20150117.

Operator ID: 2616.

Reported incident date: 9/8/2015 12:53.

Location detail: VS-7070

Cause detail: EARTH MOVEMENT, NOT DUE TO HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS

Cause detail: ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2015, A COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC (COLUMBIA) PIPELINE WAS INSPECTED BY COLUMBIA OPERATIONS PERSONNEL AND WAS FOUND TO HAVE A GRADE 1 LEAK IN A RURAL AREA NEAR THE CITY OF PIKEVILLE, PIKE COUNTY, KENTUCKY. LINE KA-WEST IS A 20 INCH IN DIAMETER TRANSMISSION PIPELINE THAT IS OPERATED AND MAINTAINED BY COLUMBIA. THE AREA WAS MADE SAFE BY ISOLATING THE AFFECTED SEGMENT UPON CLOSING THE UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM CRITICAL VALVES. A NEAR-BY COMPRESSOR STATION WAS UTILIZED TO HELP CONTROL THE FLOW OF NATURAL GAS THROUGH THE LEAK AREA. COLUMBIA OPERATIONS PERSONNEL RESPONDED TO THE SITE, MOBILIZED EQUIPMENT AND PREPARED THE AREA TO INITIATE A PIPELINE REPLACEMENT WITH PRE-TESTED JOINTS OF PIPE. THE LINE WAS REPAIRED AND RETURNED TO SERVICE ON SEPTEMBER 13TH, 2015. THE RESULTS OF THE METALLURGICAL FAILURE ANALYSIS REPORT AS PRESENTED BY THE METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS CONSULTANT INDICATED THE FOLLOWING: THE FAILURE OF THE PIPELINE SECTION WAS INITIATED AT AN OVERBEND CONTAINING A BUCKLE THAT WAS LIKELY THE RESULT OF DUCTILE OVERLOAD FROM BENDING STRESSES SUCH AS THOSE CAUSED BY LAND/SOIL MOVEMENT. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF PRE-EXISTING DEFECTS OR IN-SERVICE GROWTH ON THE FRACTURE SURFACE.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — EARTH MOVEMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $355,091 reported total cost, $188,687.513 in 1984 dollars, $436,293.959 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.