BUCKEYE PARTNERS, LP — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2011-03-20

Hazardous liquid incident in SHIPPINGPORT, BEAVER County, PA. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 300 REFINED AND/OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT (NON-HVL) WHICH IS A LIQUID AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $304,203 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: 20110120.

Operator ID: 1845.

Reported incident date: 3/20/2011 14:02.

Location detail: MP 1.46

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: ON MARCH 20TH 2011 AT APPROXIMATELY 14:02, BUCKEYE WAS NOTIFIED BY EMERGENCY RESPONDERS OF A POSSIBLE LEAK ON THE BUCKEYE LINE IN SHIPPINGPORT, PA. BUCKEYE IMMEDIATELY DISPATCHED LOCAL FIELD PERSONNEL AND BEGAN A CONTROLLED SHUTDOWN AND ISOLATION OF THE LINE CONTAINING ULTRA LOW SULFUR DIESEL (ULSD). THE APPROPRIATE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL NOTIFICATIONS WERE MADE TO REPORT THE RELEASE AND DISPATCH TEAMS OF RESPONDERS TO CONTAIN THE PRODUCT AND REPAIR THE DEFECT IN THE LINE. THE DAMAGED PIPE WAS CUT OUT AND REPLACED WITH CERTIFIED PIPE ON 3/23/11. THE PIPE SEGMENT CONTAINING THE DEFECT WAS SENT TO A LABORATORY FOR METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE THE EXACT CAUSE OF THE RELEASE. ONCE THE PERMANENT REPAIR WAS COMPLETED ON MARCH 23RD, THE LINE WAS RESTARTED AT A TEMPORARILY REDUCED MOP. AS AN EXTRA PRECAUTION, THE LINE IS OPERATING AT THE REDUCED MOP UNTIL THE ANALYSIS OF THE PIPELINE IS COMPLETED. MOST OF THE PRODUCT HAS BEEN RECOVERED AS REMEDIATION EFFORTS CONTINUE. A PROFESSIONAL METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS CLAIMS IT IS LIKELY THAT THE CORROSIVE LOW PH WATER DIRECTLY CONTACTING THE EXPOSED SEGMENT OF PIPELINE CAUSED THE LOCALIZED EXTERNAL PITTING CORROSION LEADING TO THE THROUGH WALL DEFECT AND THE SURROUNDING METAL LOSS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $757,637 reported total cost, $406,361.923 in 1984 dollars, $1,000,744.351 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.