PHMSA Report 20180052 - COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2018-04-18 | Regulus

Gas transmission and gathering incident in BEVERLY, RANDOLPH COUNTY County, WV. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 4000 NATURAL GAS released, $0 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: 20180052.

Operator ID: 2616.

Reported incident date: 4/18/2018 11:42.

Location detail: COMP. STATION

Cause detail: OTHER EQUIPMENT FAILURE

Cause detail: ON APRIL 18, 2018, AN UNINTENDED RELEASE OF NATURAL GAS (MATERIAL) EVENT INTO ATMOSPHERE WAS REPORTED TO THE NATIONAL RESPONSE CENTER (NRC). THIS EVENT TOOK PLACE AT FILES CREEK COMPRESSOR STATION (CS) IN RANDOLPH COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA. THIS CS IS OPERATED AND MAINTAINED BY COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC (COLUMBIA). AT 11:42 AM EST, A 15-AMP ELECTRICAL FUSE FAILED CAUSING (4) FIRE VALVES TO OPEN ON THE EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN (ESD) SYSTEM. THE FIRE VALVES (3-8" & 1-4") BLEW FOR 3 1/2 MINUTES RELEASING 4000 MCF OF GAS TO THE ATMOSPHERE THROUGH THE ASSOCIATED BLOW-OFF PIPING BEFORE BEING ISOLATED AND SHUT IN BY ON-SITE EMPLOYEES. THE PRELIMINARY MATERIAL LOSS CALCULATIONS WAS DETERMINED TO BE GREATER THAN 3,000 MCF, HENCE, THE EVENT WAS REPORTED TO NRC AS AN INCIDENT. A 48-HR UPDATE NOTICE WAS CALLED-IN TO THE NRC WHERE THE UPDATE REPORT NO. WAS 1209832. THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM CONTROLLING THESE VALVES WAS EVALUATED AND DETERMINED TO BE OVERLOADED, THUS CAUSING THE FUSE TO FAIL. TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE, THE CURRENT LOAD WAS SPLIT INTO TWO CIRCUITS, THUS REDUCING THE CURRENT LOAD

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — OTHER EQUIPMENT FAILURE.

PHMSA indexed costs: $10,500 reported total cost, $9,804.965 in 1984 dollars, $12,039.007 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.