GRAYVILLE GAS DEPT, CITY OF — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-05-04

Gas transmission and gathering incident in GRAYVILLE, WHITE County, IL. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 5500 NATURAL GAS released, $150,000 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: 20110046.

Operator ID: 6640.

Reported incident date: 5/4/2011 22:30.

Location detail: 4.3 MILES SSE

Cause detail: HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS

Cause detail: AT APPROXIMATELY 10:30 PM LOCAL TIME ON 5/4/2011 THE 6 INCH MAIN OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE CITY OF GRAYVILLE, ILLINOIS THAT SERVES GRAYVILLE, IL , CONSUMERS GAS COMPANY'S NORTH SYSTEM, AND MT. CARMEL PUBLIC UTILITY COMPANY RUPTURED IN A FLOOD PLAIN OF THE WABASH RIVER. THE PRESSURE MONITOR ON THE MT. CARMEL UTILITY SYSTEM INDICATED LOW PRESSURE AT APPROXIMATELY 11:00 PM. THE CITY OF GRAYVILLE WAS NOTIFIED AND THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PRESSURE AT THE GRAYVILLE STATION, WHICH NORMALLY OPERATES AT 400 PSIG, WAS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF 100 PSIG. FURTHER INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE 6 INCH TRANSMISSION MAIN HAD FAILED IN THE FLOOD PLAIN. THE 6 INCH MAIN WAS SHUT OFF AT THE GRAYVILLE STATION AT APPROXIMATELY 12:00 AM. THE SYSTEMS WERE KEPT IN OPERATION THROUGH THE 4 INCH TRANSMISSION MAIN THAT PARALLELS THE 6 INCH TRANSMISSION MAIN. THE 6 INCH VALVE AT THE TEXAS EASTERN DELIVERY POINT WAS STILL OPEN AND IT WAS DECIDED TO LEAVE THE VALVE OPEN UNTIL DAYLIGHT DUE TO THE DANGER OF TRAVERSING THE FLOOD PLAIN IN THE DARK. AT DAYLIGHT TWO BOATS WERE TAKEN TO THE DELIVERY POINT WHERE THE 6 INCH VALVE IS LOCATED. THE 6 INCH VALVE WAS CLOSED AT APPROXIMATELY 8:30 AM. THE 6 INCH MAIN IS UNDER SEVERAL FEET OF WATER AND THE DECISION ON REPAIRS WILL BE MADE WHEN THE WATER RECEDES AND THE SITE CAN BE ACCESSED.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS.

PHMSA indexed costs: $184,000 reported total cost, $103,316.043 in 1984 dollars, $230,177.401 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.