TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE COMPANY — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-11-24

Gas transmission and gathering incident in AUSTIN, POTTER County, PA. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.01 NATURAL GAS released, $224,000 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: 20160014.

Operator ID: 19570.

Reported incident date: 11/24/2015 12:25.

Location detail: 500+39

Cause detail: INTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: 11/20/2015 AT 8:00 AM A TRANSCO STATION OPERATOR SMELLED A GAS ODOR NEAR THE REGULATOR BUILDING IN THE STATION YARD. GAS CONTROL WAS CONTACTED. THE POWER GAS LINES NEXT TO THE BUILDING WHERE THE ODOR WAS COMING FROM WERE BLOWN DOWN AND ISOLATED IN ORDER TO BEGIN THE INVESTIGATION. 11/21/2015 THE OPERATIONS CREW BEGAN THE EXCAVATION BY HAND IN THE AREA WHERE THE SUSPECTED LEAK WAS IDENTIFIED. THE LINES WERE EXPOSED AND THE LEAKING PIPE WAS LOCATED. 11/23/2015 A CONTRACTOR ARRIVED ON SITE TO EVALUATE THE SITUATION AND PREPARED A SAFE EXCAVATION PLAN FOR THE REPAIR OF THE LEAKING PIPE. 11/24/2015 DURING EXCAVATION IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THE COST OF REPAIRS WOULD EXCEED THE $50,000 THRESHOLD OUTLINED IN CFR PART 191. LOCAL OPERATIONS PERSONNEL NOTIFIED GAS CONTROL THAT THIS WOULD NOW BE A DOT REPORTABLE INCIDENT. PIPELINE CONTROL CALLED IN TO THE NRC TO REPORT THE INCIDENT. 12/4/2015 THE FAILED SEGMENT OF PIPE WAS REMOVED AND A NEW PIPE WAS INSTALLED. THE INTEGRITY SME IDENTIFIED THE CAUSE OF LEAK AS POSSIBLE INTERNAL CORROSION DUE TO THE LEAK LOCATION ON THE PIPE (6 O'CLOCK POSITION) . 5/25/2016 RCA HAS DETERMINED THAT LIQUIDS HAD ACCUMULATED IN THIS DEAD LEG SECTION OF PIPE (PIPE WAS SHUT IN). THE LIQUIDS CONTAINED HIGH LEVELS OF BACTERIA WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE INTERNAL CORROSION AND EVENTUAL FAILURE OF THE PIPE. CORRECTIVE ACTIONS: REMOVED DEAD LEG SECTION OF PIPE THAT ACCUMULATED LIQUIDS ONE MORE SECTION OF PIPE THAT IS CONSIDERED A DEAD LEG WILL BE REMOVED IN THE FUTURE LINE WILL BE SWEPT ON A REGULAR BASIS TO HELP PREVENT ACCUMULATION OF LIQUIDS IN REMAINING DEAD LEG SECTION UNTIL IT IS REMOVED LIQUID SAMPLES WILL BE TAKEN AT STATION 535 AND TESTED FOR BACTERIA

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — INTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $224,528 reported total cost, $112,862.946 in 1984 dollars, $277,342.15 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.