PIEDMONT NATURAL GAS CO INC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-02-03

Gas transmission and gathering incident in LUMBERTON, ROBESON County, NC. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 6700 NATURAL GAS released, $10,342 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: 20140076.

Operator ID: 15518.

Reported incident date: 2/3/2014 17:42.

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY

Cause detail: EXCAVATION ISSUE

Cause detail: IMPROPER EXCAVATION PRACTICE NOT LISTED ABOVE

Cause detail: CONTRACTOR CALLED FOR CLEARANCES. FACILITIES WERE LOCATED. SINCE IT WAS A HIGH PRESSURE FACLITY A STANDBY WAS SCHEDULED. CONTRACTOR ELECTED TO PROCEED THE DAY BEFORE THE SCHEDULED STANDBY AND ALSO ELECTED TO CROSS THE LINE WITHOUT EXPOSING IT. CONTRACTOR BORED INTO THE SIDE OF THE LINE. OPERATOR RESPONDED WITH MAKE SAFE, REPAIR, RESTORATION OF SERVICE AND CLEANUP ACTIVITIES AS REQUIRED. OPERATOR NOTIFIED NATIONAL RESPONSE CENTER AT TIME OF INCIDENT DUE TO PRELIMINARY REPORT OF AN INJURY. THERE WAS NO REPORTABLE INJURY. OPERATOR DID NOT FILE INCIDENT REPORT AT THE TIME BECAUSE IT WAS NOT BELIEVED ANY OTHER REPORTING CRITERIA WAS MET. DURING CALCULATION OF PROPERTY DAMAGES IN ORDER TO BILL CONTRACTOR, OPERATOR DISCOVERED TOTAL PROPERTY DAMAGE DID EXCEED THE $50,000 REPORTING THRESHOLD.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — THIRD PARTY EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $80,999 reported total cost, $45,524.777 in 1984 dollars, $91,612.074 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.