CENTERPOINT ENERGY GAS TRANSMISSION — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2012-06-20

Gas transmission and gathering incident in EL DORADO, UNION County, AR. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1 NATURAL GAS released, $90,760 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: 20120067.

Operator ID: 602.

Reported incident date: 6/20/2012 19:22.

Location detail: 117+88

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY THIRD PARTY

Cause detail: MISCELLANEOUS ROOT CAUSES

Cause detail: ROOT CAUSE NOT LISTED (COMMENT REQUIRED)

Cause detail: ON 6/20/12 AT 5:46PM CONNER WILSON/SOUTHERN BRUSH SW INC. CONTACTED CEGT PERSONNEL, FROM THE EL DORADO OFFICE, AND SAID THEY HAD HIT A TAP VALVE ON OUR LINE WITH THEIR ROW EQUIPMENT AND IT WAS LEAKING. AT 6:00PM SYSTEM CONTROL WAS CONTACTED AND NOTIFIED OF A POSSIBLE INCIDENT. AT 6:11PM CEGT PERSONNEL ARRIVED ON SITE AND IDENTIFIED A BROKEN TAP VALVE ON KT-1 OFF OF FOREST LANE. AT 7:00PM PLANS WERE MADE FOR THE CEGT TEAM MEMBERS TO MONITOR THE LEAK UNTIL FIXED. THE DECISION WAS MADE TO INSTALL THREE WAY STOPPLE FITTINGS AND APPROXIMATELY 60' OF PIPE. AT 7:22PM IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THIS EVENT MAY MEET THE DEFINITION OF AN INCIDENT (BASED ON REPAIR COST ESTIMATES) AND NOTIFICATION WAS MADE TO SYSTEM CONTROL. CONFIRMATION OF AN INCIDENT WAS DETERMINED AND AT 8:16PM A REPORT WAS FILED BY SYSTEM CONTROL TO NRC AND THE STATE OF ARKANSAS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT. AT 8:30PM JERRY THOMAS WITH UNION COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ARRIVED ON SITE TO LOOK AT LEAK AND DISCUSS CEGT'S REPAIR METHODS AND TIMEFRAME FOR REPAIRS. ON 6/21/12 AT 11:16AM CEGT'S REPAIR CONTRACTOR ARRIVED ON SITE. AT 2:35PM SYSTEM CONTROL WAS CONTACTED AND ADVISED THAT THE PIPELINE WAS BEING EXCAVATED. AT 3:58PM CEGT EMPLOYEES DISTRIBUTED THE REPAIR GAS HANDLING PLAN TO SYSTEM CONTROL AND OPERATIONS STAFF. AT 6:01PM THE REPAIR CONTRACTOR BEGAN SANDBLASTING AND PREPARING TO WELD ON STOPPLE FITTINGS. ON 6/22/2012 AT 6:30AM SYSTEM CONTROL WAS NOTIFIED THAT THE PROCESS TO WELD THE FITTINGS WAS GOING TO BEGIN. AT 11:15AM CREWS BEGAN WELDING THE LINE PIPE TO THE FITTINGS ON THE PIPE. AT 2:15PM THE CONTRACTOR BEGAN THE NITROGEN TEST ON THE FITTINGS. ON 6/23/12 AT 6:53AM CEGT PERSONNEL CONTACTED SYSTEM CONTROL AND NOTIFIED THEM WE WERE STARTING WORK. AT 10:49AM CEGT PERSONNEL CONTACTED SYSTEM CONTROL AND NOTIFIED THEM THAT THEY WERE HOT TAPPING AND THEN BLOWING DOWN THE SECTION OF LINE. AT 11:10AM THE LINE SEGMENT WAS BLOWN DOWN AND OUT OF SERVICE. AT 3:01PM CEGT PERSONNEL CONTACTED SYSTEM CONTROL TO NOTIFY THEM WE WERE GETTING READY TO BACKFILL THE SITE. AT 6:30PM CREWS LEFT SITE.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $91,772 reported total cost, $48,340.013 in 1984 dollars, $119,034.2 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.