PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-12-23

Gas transmission and gathering incident in OROVILLE, BUTTE County, CA. Reported cause: CORROSION FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0.01 NATURAL GAS released, $100,000 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: 20150010.

Operator ID: 15007.

Reported incident date: 12/23/2014 4:00.

Location detail: MP 31.64

Cause detail: EXTERNAL CORROSION

Cause detail: ON DECEMBER 23, 2014 AT APPROXIMATELY 0400 HOURS, PG&E CREWS WERE PERFORMING A ROUTINE LEAK INSPECTION AND REPAIR ON A NON-HAZARDOUS LEAK ON PG&E'S 6-INCH TRANSMISSION LINE (L-50A NEAR MP 31.64) ON THE SOUTHBOUND SHOULDER OF HIGHWAY 99, SOUTH OF SKILLIN LANE IN OROVILLE. DURING THE COURSE OF THE LEAK INVESTIGATION, THE LEAK CONTINUED TO MIGRATE THROUGH THE EXCAVATION AND WAS UPGRADED TO A HAZARDOUS LEAK, WHICH REQUIRED IMMEDIATE REPAIR. BY 2145 HOURS ON DECEMBER 23, A 10% PRESSURE REDUCTION WAS TAKEN ON L-50A WHILE PG&E CREW INVESTIGATED THE LEAK. ADDITIONAL PRESSURE REDUCTION WAS TAKEN ON L-50A TO LOWER LINE PRESSURE BELOW THE MAXIMUM WELDING PRESSURE OF 254 PSIG AT APPROXIMATELY 0400 HOURS ON DECEMBER 24. BY 1030 HOURS ON DECEMBER 24, PRESSURE CONTROL FITTINGS WERE INSTALLED AT MP 31.65 AND MP 31.79. PG&E ISOLATED APPROXIMATELY 740 FEET OF PIPE. PG&E IDENTIFIED EXTERNAL CORROSION WITH A PIN-HOLE LEAK. FURTHER ANALYSIS IS CURRENTLY BEING CONDUCTED ON THE PIPE. PG&E WILL SUPPLEMENT THIS REPORT AS INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE. BY DECEMBER 27 1530 HOURS, PG&E REMOVED A 66 FOOT SECTION OF PIPE. BY 0140 HOURS ON DECEMBER 28, REPAIRS WERE COMPLETED (A NEW SECTION OF HYDRO-TESTED PIPE WAS INSTALLED) AND PG&E BEGAN RESTORING L-50A TO NORMAL OPERATING PRESSURE. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT LESS THAN 3MMCF OF NATURAL GAS WAS RELEASED. THERE WERE NO INJURIES, NO FATALITIES, NO IGNITION AND NO MEDIA ASSOCIATED WITH THIS INCIDENT. CALTRANS AND CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL WERE OBSERVED ON SCENE THROUGH THE COURSE OF THE WORK. NO EVACUATIONS WERE PERFORMED AND TRAFFIC ON HIGHWAY 99 WAS REDUCED TO ONE LANE IN BOTH DIRECTIONS NEAR THE LEAK. THIS IS A CLASS 1 LOCATION. NO CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCED GAS SERVICE INTERRUPTION. AT 1400 HOURS ON DECEMBER 23, IT WAS DETERMINED THAT DAMAGES WOULD LIKELY EXCEED $50,000, THEREFORE THE INCIDENT WAS REPORTED TO THE DOT AND CPUC.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: CORROSION — EXTERNAL.

PHMSA indexed costs: $100,002 reported total cost, $50,743.195 in 1984 dollars, $124,963.163 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.