WILLIAMS GAS PIPELINE - TRANSCO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2004-02-26

Gas transmission and gathering incident in HEIDELBERG, JONES County, MS. Reported cause: 21. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 1 injuries, $100 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: 20040024.

Operator ID: 19570.

Reported incident date: 2/26/2004.

Cause detail: THREADS STRIPPED, BROKEN PIPE COUPLING

Cause detail: EMPLOYEES PROCEEDED TO BLOWOFF M18B TO SHORT CYCLE VALVE. THEY FIRST INSTALLED A YALE CAP ON THE BLOWOFF STACK OF THE VALVE AND CLOSED THE POWER GAS SUPPLY SO THAT WHEN IT OPERATED IT WOULD NOT ACTUALLY BLOW ANYTHING DOWN. THEY THEN ATTEMPTED TO OPERATE THE 3 WAY VALVE ON THE EMERGENCY BLOW DOWN SIGNAL LINE COMING INTO THE VALVE TO MAKE THE BLOW OFF VALVE OPERATE. THE 3 WAY VALVE WOULD NOT OPERATE SO THEY DECIDED TO VENT THE POWER GAS LINE OFF IN ORDER TO CHECK THE OIL LEVEL IN THE OILER. EMPLOYEES THEN AGAIN ATTEMPTED TO TURN THE HANDLE ON THE 3 WAY VALVE. AS THEY STARTED TO TURN THE HANDLE, THE 1/2" NIPPLE THAT IS ON THE UPSTREAM SIDE OF THE 3 WAY VALVE BROKE INTO RELEASING HIGH PRESSURE GAS. THE EMPLOYEE SUFFERED ABRASIONS, SWELLING AROUND THE EYES, AND FOREIGN MATERIAL IN HIS EYES AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT, RESULTING IN ONE OVERNIGHT STAY IN THE HOSPITAL.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, serious incident.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — THREADED CONNECTION/COUPLING FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $100 reported total cost, $62.214 in 1984 dollars, $153.213 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.