SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2018-01-09

Gas transmission and gathering incident in MONTECITO, SANTA BARBARA County, CA. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 12820 NATURAL GAS released, $1,380,745 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: 20180022.

Operator ID: 18484.

Reported incident date: 1/9/2018 3:55.

Location detail: 12.6

Cause detail: HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS

Cause detail: SOCALGAS OBSERVED A PRESSURE DROP IN THE TRANSMISSION PIPELINE IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY. AUTOMATED SAFETY EQUIPMENT DESIGNED TO STOP THE FLOW OF GAS SHUT OFF THE NATURAL GAS FLOW TO THE SECTION OF THE DAMAGED PIPELINE. UPON A PRELIMINARY SITE VISIT, SOCALGAS DISCOVERED A SECTION OF LINE 1005 DAMAGED, LIKELY DUE TO THE HEAVY RAIN WEATHER AND RESULTING MUD, DEBRIS FLOW, AND/OR FLOODING. AS SOON AS SAFETY PERMITTED, SOCALGAS CREWS AND CONTRACTORS CUT AND CAPPED THE LINE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE DAMAGED SECTION AND PURGED ALL REMAINING NATURAL GAS. SOCALGAS HAS RECEIVED SOME INFORMATION SUGGESTING THAT ONE OR MORE PEOPLE MAY HAVE BEEN INJURED CONSEQUENTIAL TO THE MUD/DEBRIS FLOW DAMAGE SUSTAINED BY LINE 1005. THE ISOLATION AND FOLLOWING CUT AND CAP PROCEDURE DID NOT YIELD ANY SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS. SOCALGAS IS CONTINUING TO ASSESS THE TRANSMISSION PIPELINE SYSTEM IN THE MONTECITO AREA FOR ANY ADDITIONAL DAMAGES. THIS EVENT WAS REPORTED TO THE DOT AND TO THE CPUC DUE TO THE POTENTIAL RELEASE OF GAS AND THE DAMAGE COST EXCEEDING $50,000. THE TOTAL COST IN RESPONSE TO THIS EVENT IS PENDING AND WILL BE PROVIDED ONCE AVAILABLE. THE 48-HOUR NOTIFICATION WAS COMPLETED PER NRC #1201510. FOR ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT IK SONG AT (818) 279-5388. UPDATE (4/30/2018): THE PRELIMINARY COST INFORMATION IN PART D HAS BEEN UPDATED AS A PART OF THIS SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT. THE COST IS NOT FINALIZED AND WILL BE UPDATED ACCORDINGLY. PLEASE CONTACT IK SONG AT (818) 279-5388 FOR ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS. UPDATE 4/8/2019: UPDATED YTD TOTAL COST INFORMATION (FINALIZED). NUMBER OF PEOPLE EVACUATED DUE TO INCIDENT IS UNKNOWN AS THE ENTIRE AREA WAS UNDER MANDATORY AND VOLUNTARY EVACUATION PROTOCOLS. FOR ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT ALI MATIN AT (909) 919-0463.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $6,898,334 reported total cost, $3,357,464.193 in 1984 dollars, $8,111,140.53 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.