NORTHWEST PIPELINE LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-12-16

Gas transmission and gathering incident in MALAGA (WENATCHEE), CHELAN County, WA. Reported cause: NATURAL FORCE DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 155.42 NATURAL GAS released, $100,000 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: 20140006.

Operator ID: 13845.

Reported incident date: 12/16/2013 17:00.

Location detail: 131

Cause detail: HEAVY RAINS/FLOODS

Cause detail: PRIOR TO THIS INCIDENT THERE WAS A FIRE THAT CLEARED THE AREA OF GROUND VEGETATION. HEAVY RAIN THEN CAUSED A FLASH FLOOD. THE PIPELINE WAS BEING INSPECTED AFTER A FLASH FLOOD EVENT. SEVERAL DENTS WERE DISCOVERED, IN A DRY WASH, WHILE INSPECTING THE PIPELINE. THE PIPE WAS UT INSPECTED IN A FEW AREAS SHOWED 0.185 WT PIPE. WHILE CLEANING THE PIPELINE FOR FURTHER INSPECTION A PIN HOLE LEAK WAS DISCOVERED. THE PIPELINE PRESSURE WAS LOWERED, AND STOPPLE BYPASS WAS COMPLETED TO REMOVE THE DAMAGED SECTION OF PIPELINE. APPROXIMATELY 27' OF PIPE WAS REPLACED. *NOTE: IN PART B #11 OF THIS FORM IT ASKS FOR THE DEPTH-OF-COVER. AFTER THE FLASH FLOOD, THE TOP OF THE PIPE WAS JUST BARELY VISIBLE. THE FORM DIDN'T ALLOW FOR A DEPTH-OF-COVER VALUE OF LESS THAN 1 INCH. TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION AS BEST WE COULD WE STATED THAT THE DEPTH-OF-COVER WAS 1 INCH.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $250,847 reported total cost, $129,994.236 in 1984 dollars, $319,289.205 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.