COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-01-12

Gas transmission and gathering incident in Not Within a Municipality, FLOYD County, KY. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 7200 NATURAL GAS released, $10,000 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: 20140017.

Operator ID: 2616.

Reported incident date: 1/12/2014 19:57.

Location detail: 27+51 - 56+16

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

Cause detail: ON JANUARY 12, 2014, A PIPELINE FAILURE OCCURRED ON LINE PM-83, A COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC LINE. THE PIPELINE FAILURE OCCURRED IN A REMOTE CLASS 1 LOCATION, APPROXIMATELY ONE MILE EAST OF THE SMALL VILLAGE OF WARCO, NEAR MARTIN KENTUCKY IN FLOYD COUNTY. OPERATIONS PERSONNEL ACTED PROMPTLY TO CLOSE VALVE PM-83-100 TO ISOLATE THE LINE. THE OTHER END WAS CAPPED DUE TO THE STRIP MINING ACTIVITIES. THE LINE FAILED CIRCUMFERENTIALLY AND PARTIALLY PULLED APART BUT DID NOT SEPARATE. THE LINE IS CURRENTLY BLOWN DOWN AND OUT OF SERVICE. THIS LINE WILL REMAIN OUT OF SERVICE UNTIL THE INTEGRITY OF THE PIPE IN THE AREA OF THE FAILURE CAN BE CONFIRMED AND THE AREA REPAIRED. A SCADA SYSTEM IS IN PLACE ON A COMMON PIPELINE SUPPLYING THE LINE IN QUESTION WHERE THIS SYSTEM WAS USED FOR IDENTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION OF THE INCIDENT. INITIAL INCIDENT REPOT WAS SUBMITTED ON FEBRUARY 10, 2014 7/26/2017 - RESULTS FROM THE METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS INDICATE THE RUPTURE INITIATED AT A FIELD GIRTH WELD WHICH WAS LOCATED BETWEEN PIPE AND ELBOW FITTING. THE RUPTURE OCCURRED DUE TO OVERLOAD FROM AN AXIAL STRESS SUCH AS THOSE CAUSED BY LAND/SOIL MOVEMENT. THE LINE REMAINS OUT OF SERVICE PENDING REPAIRS. A 3-5 YEAR ESTIMATE IS PREDICTED BEFORE REPAIRS ARE MADE.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE — EARTH MOVEMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $42,456 reported total cost, $27,157.529 in 1984 dollars, $40,864.307 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.