CROSSROADS PIPELINE COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2018-01-06

Gas transmission and gathering incident in SCHERERVILLE, LAKE County, IN. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 14603 NATURAL GAS released, $6,600 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: 20180021.

Operator ID: 993.

Reported incident date: 1/6/2018 14:25.

Location detail: BDV-0011

Cause detail: MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: ON JANUARY 6TH, 2018, AN UNINTENDED RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS (MATERIAL) WAS REPORTED TO THE NATIONAL RESPONSE CENTER @ 18:51 EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST). THIS EVENT TOOK PLACE AT SCHERERVILLE COMPRESSOR STATION (CS) IN LAKE COUNTY, NEAR THE TOWN OF SCHERERVILLE, INDIANA. THIS FACILITY IS OPERATED AND MAINTAINED BY CROSSROADS PIPELINE COMPANY, LLC. THIS EVENT DID NOT TRIGGER THE ESD SYSTEM OF THE CS AND THE UNINTENDED RELEASE WAS NOTED FROM A 6-INCH SUCTION BLOW-OFF VALVE (BDV-0011) THAT VENTED INTO ATMOSPHERE FOR ABOUT 145 MINUTES. THE COMPANY OPERATIONS PERSONNEL WHO RESPONDED TO THE SITE WERE THERE IN AROUND 20MINUTES. BASED ON THE PRELIMINARY DATA WHERE AT AN OPERATING PRESSURE OF 250 PSIG AND A 6-IN DIAMETER OUTLET RELEASING FOR MORE THAN 60 MINUTES, CROSSES THE 3,000 MCF. MATERIAL LOST CALCULATIONS WAS UP TO 6,400 MCF. THERE WAS NO FIRE, NO FATALITIES, NO INJURIES OR EVACUATIONS. THE EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WERE ON SITE DUE TO THE NOISE CREATED BY THE NOZZLE EFFECT FROM THE BLOW-OFF VALVE OUTLET SUB. THE AREA WAS MADE SAFE AND THE SECTION OF THIS PIPE WAS MADE ISOLATING IT. FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS WILL TAKE PLACE TO IDENTIFY THE REASON BEHIND THIS UNINTENDED RELEASE OF MATERIAL INTO ATMOSPHERE. THE INITIAL NRC REPORT NO. IS 1201223 RECEIVED AT 18:51 EST AND THE 48-HR UPDATE NRC REPORT WAS COMPLETED ON JANUARY 8TH, 2018 @ 16:23 WITH REPORT NO. 1201330 WITH A REVISED GAS LOST CALCULATION THAT INCREASED UP TO 14,600 MCF. FACILITY PERSONNEL WITH SUPPORTING RELIABILITY ENGINEER, CONDUCTED FIELD TESTING OF THE ESD SYSTEM, SUCTION BLOW-OFF VALVE POST-INCIDENT INVESTIGATION. THE ATTEMPTS TO REPLICATE THE EVENT IN VARIOUS CASE-SCENARIOS FAILED TO RECREATE THE EVENT OR CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT LED TO THIS UNINTENDED RELEASE OF MATERIAL. ALL TESTS CONCLUDED IN SUCCESSFUL RESPONSES AND NO FAILURE INDICATIONS WERE RECORDED TO ANY OF THE ESD SYSTEM COMPONENTS. PROBABLE CAUSE INDICATED THAT A POTENTIAL RESIDUE OF MOISTURE MAY HAVE FROZEN-OFF LEADING TO THE INITIATION OF THE UNINTENDED RELEASE THROUGH THE BLOW-OFF VALVE. THE OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT WAS 6 DEGREES F. WITH MODERATE WINDS.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — MALFUNCTION OF CONTROL/RELIEF EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $43,400 reported total cost, $37,516.814 in 1984 dollars, $49,958.102 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.