COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION CORP — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2011-05-13

Gas transmission and gathering incident in 8 MILES SSE OF IRVINE, KY, ESTILL County, KY. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 53 NATURAL GAS released, $120,000 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: 20110175.

Operator ID: 2616.

Reported incident date: 5/13/2011 19:02.

Cause detail: COMPRESSOR OR COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: AT 16:04 ON FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2011, A POSSIBLE FIRE WAS REPORTED BY COLUMBIA'S MONITORING CENTER. THE EVENT WAS AT THE COMPANY'S STATION CAMP COMPRESSOR STATION, A SMALL UNMANNED STATION IN RURAL CENTRAL KENTUCKY. THE STATION CONSISTS OF FOUR AJAX 230 HORSEPOWER UNITS. THE LOCAL FIRE DEPARTMENT WAS ON SITE AND HAD CLOSED A ROAD ADJACENT TO THE STATION. COMPANY EMPLOYEES HAD ARRIVED AT THE SITE AT APPROXIMATELY 16:00 AND CONFIRMED THAT UNIT #3 WAS ON FIRE. BY 16:35 THE STATION WAS SHUT IN AND THE FIRE WAS EXTINGUISHED. AFTER A THOROUGH EXAMINATION, IT WAS DETERMINED THAT ONLY UNIT #3 HAD BEEN DAMAGED. IT WAS DECLARED TO BE UNAVAILABLE FOR SERVICE, PENDING FURTHER ASSESSMENT AND REPAIR. THE OTHER UNITS WERE LATER RETURNED TO SERVICE WITHOUT INCIDENT. THE UNITS AT THIS STATION ARE OWNED BY EXTERRAN AND LEASED TO COLUMBIA. A REPRESENTATIVE OF EXTERRAN ARRIVED AT THE SITE AT APPROXIMATELY 18:45 AND PROVIDED AN INITIAL DAMAGE ESTIMATE OF $125,000 TO $250,000. THIS ESTIMATE WAS RECEIVED AT APPROXIMATELY 19:02. UPON RECEIPT OF THIS ESTIMATE, IT WAS DETERMINED THAT AN INCIDENT HAD OCCURRED. THE NRC AND PHMSA SOUTHERN REGION OFFICES WERE NOTIFIED AT 19:44 AND 20:08 RESPECTIVELY. OVER THE COURSE OF THE NEXT THREE DAYS THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE EVENT WERE ESTABLISHED. IT WAS DECIDED THAT THE COMPRESSOR CROSSHEAD SLIDE HAD FAILED AND SIEZED ON UNIT #3. THE RESULTANT HEAT AND DAMAGE IGNITED CRANKCASE OIL VAPORS (VIA THE OIL BREATHER) AND A NEARBY LUBE OIL DAY STORAGE TANK. THE HEAT FROM THE OIL FIRE HAD, IN TURN, DAMAGED A VALVE IN THE STARTING GAS SYSTEM, CAUSING GAS LEAKAGE AND A SUBSEQUENT SMALL SECONDARY FIRE. THIS SECONDARY FIRE CAUSED NO APPARENT ADDITIONAL DAMAGE. REPAIRS WERE MADE TO THE UNIT AND IT WAS RETURNED TO SERVICE ON MAY 27. FINAL REPAIR COSTS TOTALLED APPROXIMATELY $120,000.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — PUMP/COMPRESSOR OR PUMP/COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $121,248 reported total cost, $65,072.876 in 1984 dollars, $160,039.609 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.