PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2013-11-22

Gas transmission and gathering incident in SAN ARDO, MONTEREY County, CA. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1166 NATURAL GAS released, $200,000 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: 20130118.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 11/22/2013 12:56.

Location detail: 5.35

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY

Cause detail: NOTIFICATION ISSUE

Cause detail: NO NOTIFICATION MADE TO THE ONE-CALL CENTER/811

Cause detail: ON NOVEMBER 22, 2013, AT APPROXIMATELY 1256 HOURS, PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC (PG&E) GAS CONTROL TRANSMISSION OBSERVED A SUDDEN PRESSURE DROP ON SCADA ON TRANSMISSION LINE L-187. PG&E CALLED 9-1-1 AT 1311 HOURS TO REPORT A POSSIBLE GAS LINE BREAK. PG&E'S GAS SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE ARRIVED ON SCENE AT 1355 HOURS. A THIRD PARTY EXCAVATOR, EB FARMS, STRUCK PG&E'S 6-INCH STEEL GAS TRANSMISSION LINE, L-187, RESULTING IN A RELEASE OF GAS. THE EXCAVATOR WAS PLOWING A FIELD AT 62910 CATTLEMEN ROAD, NEAR HIGHWAY 101 IN THE TOWN OF SAN ARDO. THE EXCAVATOR DID NOT CALL USA AND DID NOT HAND DIG TO LOCATE THE GAS LINE PRIOR TO USING MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT. PG&E'S FIELD CREWS ARRIVED AT 1425 HOURS AND THE FLOW OF GAS WAS STOPPED AT 1602 HOURS BY CLOSING A MAIN LINE VALVE. ONE HUNDRED FORTY CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCED GAS SERVICE INTERRUPTION. AT 1700 HOURS ON NOVEMBER 23, 2013, 114 OF THE AVAILABLE CUSTOMERS WERE RELIT. THE REMAINING 26 CUSTOMERS WERE RESTORED BY NOVEMBER 24, 2013. THERE WERE NO INJURIES, NO FATALITIES, NO IGNITION AND NO MEDIA ASSOCIATED WITH THIS INCIDENT. THE VOLUME OF GAS UNINTENTIALLY RELEASED IS LESS THAN 3 MILLION CUBIC FEET. THIS INCIDENT WAS REPORTED TO THE DOT AT 1453 HOURS AND TO THE CPUC AT 1514 HOURS BECAUSE THE COST OF DAMAGES DUE TO THE RELEASE OF GAS IS MORE THAN $50,000.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $403,300 reported total cost, $209,564.949 in 1984 dollars, $512,795.573 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.