ELIZABETHTOWN GAS CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2015-01-15

Gas transmission and gathering incident in HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, HUNTERDON County, NJ. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 4669.8 NATURAL GAS released, $60,000 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: 20150023.

Operator ID: 4350.

Reported incident date: 1/15/2015 14:00.

Location detail: 9-15

Cause detail: EXCAVATION DAMAGE BY OPERATOR'S CONTRACTOR (SECOND PARTY)

Cause detail: EXCAVATION ISSUE

Cause detail: IMPROPER EXCAVATION PRACTICE NOT LISTED ABOVE

Cause detail: THE COMPANY CONTRACTOR SHEARED OFF A 2 INCH BLOW-OFF VALVE CAUSING A GAS RELEASE DURING EXCAVATION ACTIVITIES WITH MECHANIZED EQUIPMENT ALONG THE 12 INCH GILBERT II STEEL GAS TRANSMISSION PIPELINE JUST NORTH OF THE EXISTING 10 INCH GII-18 VALVE. NOTE FOR PART G: THE CONTRACTOR ORIGINALLY NOTIFIED THE NJ ONE CALL CENTER ON 10/28/14 OF THE INTENT TO EXCAVATE AND TICKET 143012494 WAS ISSUED AS INDICATED. HOWEVER, UNDER NEW JERSEY REGULATIONS THAT TICKET EXPIRED ON 1/6/15. THE CONTRACTOR MADE A SECOND NOTIFICATION TO EXCAVATE ON 1/12/2015 AND WAS GIVEN TICKET # 150121636 WHICH HAD A DIG START DATE OF 1/16/2015. SO THE ONE CALL CENTER WAS NOTIFIED BUT NEITHER TICKET WAS LEGALLY IN FORCE AT THE TIME OF THE EXCAVATION UNDER NEW JERSEY REGULATIONS.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — OPERATOR/CONTRACTOR EXCAVATION DAMAGE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $98,000 reported total cost, $61,079.119 in 1984 dollars, $118,359.504 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.