TRUNKLINE GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-03-06

Gas transmission and gathering incident in PATTERSON, ST. MARY County, LA. Reported cause: OTHER INCIDENT CAUSE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 900 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: 20120029.

Operator ID: 19730.

Reported incident date: 3/6/2012 7:45.

Location detail: VALVE STATION

Cause detail: MISCELLANEOUS

Cause detail: AT THE TIME OF THE ESD, NATURAL GAS VENTED, AND TURBINE OIL ACCUMULATED IN THE PIPING DISCHARGED INTO THE AIR. BECAUSE AUTOMATED ESD RELEASES RESULT IN THE RAPID RELEASE OF PRESSURIZED NATURAL GAS, THE TURBINE OIL BECAME ATOMIZED AND TRAVELED OFFSITE SETTLING TO THE NORTH AND WEST OF THE FACILITY ALONG US HIGHWAY 90 AND LA HIGHWAY 182. DURING THE MIGRATION OFFSITE, THE TURBINE OIL IMPACTED VEHICLES TRAVELING ON US HIGHWAY 90 RESULTING IN VEHICLES PULLING OFF OF THE HIGHWAY ONTO THE HIGHWAY SHOULDER. AS A RESULT, ONE COLLISION OCCURRED. THE ST. MARY PARISH SHERRIFF?S DEPARTMENT AND THE LSP WERE PRESENT ON SCENE SHORTLY AFTER. TGC?S SPILL RESPONSE CONTRACTOR WAS CONTACTED AT APPROXIMATELY 8:53 A.M. ON 3/6/12 FOR INCIDENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND RESPONSE ASSISTANCE. SUBSEQUENT TO THE INCIDENT, TWO PRIVATE CITIZENS NOTIFIED TGC THEY SOUGHT MEDICAL ATTENTION AT NEARBY HOSPITALS. THEY WERE RELEASED SHORTLY AFTER TREATMENT. INCIDENT DID NOT MEET THE TYPICAL CRITERIA FOR REPORTING. REPORTING WAS INITIATED, SINCE TGC CONSIDERED THIS A "SIGNIFICANT EVENT". **THIS REPORT IS BEING SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO PHMSA'S REQUEST, (DOCKET ID PHMSA-2013-0028), FOR SUPPLEMENTAL REPORTS FROM OPERATORS WHO SUBMITTED REPORTS FOR INCIDENTS OCCURRING AFTER JANUARY 1, 2010, WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING: (1) ``PIPE GIRTH WELD'' WAS SELECTED AS THE ``ITEM INVOLVED IN INCIDENT'' IN PART C3 OF THE REPORT. THE REVISED REPORT COLLECTS DATA ABOUT THE PIPE ADJACENT TO THE GIRTH WELD. (2) ``FUNCTION OF PIPELINE SYSTEM'' IS NULL IN PART E5F OF THE REPORT. THE REVISED REPORT COLLECTS THE FUNCTION OF THE PIPELINE SYSTEM FOR ALL INCIDENTS.** PART E5F OF THIS REPORT HAS BEEN COMPLETED.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: ALL OTHER CAUSES — MISCELLANEOUS.

PHMSA indexed costs: $1,989 reported total cost, $1,661.004 in 1984 dollars, $2,039.461 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.