ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS OPERATING LLC — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2010-04-23

Hazardous liquid incident in SOLOMON, OTTAWA County, KS. Reported cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 1659 HVL OR OTHER FLAMMABLE OR TOXIC FLUID WHICH IS A GAS AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $170,034 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: 20100083.

Operator ID: 31618.

Reported incident date: 4/23/2010 16:32.

Location detail: 2592+87

Cause detail: PREVIOUS DAMAGE DUE TO EXCAVATION ACTIVITY

Cause detail: MISCELLANEOUS ROOT CAUSES

Cause detail: PREVIOUS DAMAGE

Cause detail: SCADA LOW PRESSURE ALARM AT A PUMP STATION ALERTED OPERATION CONTROL (OC). OC SHUT OFF THE UPSTREAM PUMP, CLOSED THE REMOTELY OPERATED VALVE AT THE DOWNSTREAM PUMP STATION AND NOTIFIED FIELD PERSONNEL OF AN APPARENT LINE FAILURE. TWO AREA TECHNICIANS WERE DISPATCHED TO CLOSE THE VALVES BETWEEN THE PUMP STATIONS WHILE MONITORING FOR INDICATIONS OF A RELEASE. OC NOTIFIED NEARBY COUNTY SHERIFF DEPARTMENTS, KDHE, KDEM AND NRC. COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL REPORTED THE LOCATION OF AN UNCONTROLLED RUNOFF OF NATURAL GASOLINE TO A NEARBY CREEK. AREA TECHNICIANS RESPONDED BY CLOSING ADJACENT BLOCK VALVES. AERIAL OBSERVATION SPOTTED A SPILL CONTROL LOCATION IMMEDIATELY UPSTREAM OF THE CREEK INFLOW TO THE SOLOMON RIVER. A HAZ MAT RESPONSE TEAM INSTALLED A SPILL CONTROL MATERIAL WEIR, AND APPLIED ADDITIONAL BOOMS AND ABSORPTION MATERIAL TO CONTAIN RAPIDLY EVAPORATING GASOLINE. AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE, 3 RESIDENCES WERE EVACUATED. A PRECISE COUNT OF NUMBER OF PEOPLE EVACUATED WAS NOT MADE BUT ALL WERE CLEARED TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES THE DAY AFTER THE FAILURE OCCURRED. THE INITIAL NRC NOTIFICATION (CASE #937988) WAS FOLLOWED WITH A REVISED VOLUME RELEASE ESTIMATE UNDER CASE #937993. THE RELEASE VOLUME REPORTED IN PART A OF THIS REPORT IS A FURTHER REFINED RELEASE ESTIMATE FROM THE VOLUME METERED TO REFILL THE LINE AFTER THE REPAIR. AFTER THE AREA WAS MADE SAFE, THE LINE WAS EXCAVATED AND EXPOSED IN PRESENCE OF A PHMSA CENTRAL REGION INSPECTOR. THE LINE WAS THEN CUT AND REPAIRED WITH PRE-TESTED PIPE. THE FAILED PIPE WAS SENT TO KIEFNER AND ASSOCIATES FOR METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS. UNDER APPROVAL OF PHMSA CENTRAL REGION, THE LINE WAS RESTARTED ON APRIL 29 WITH A TEMPORARY 20% PRESSURE REDUCTION. SUBSEQUENT TO REVIEW OF THE METALLURGICAL RESULTS, A REVIEW OF SIX (6) ADDITIONAL LINE DIGS AND DETERMINATION OF CAUSE OF THE FAILURE, PHMSA CENTRAL REGION APPROVED REMOVING THE 20% PRESSURE REDUCTION. SHORTLY AFTER THE INCIDENT, APPROXIMATELY 100 SMALL FISH WERE FOUND DEAD IN ONE LOCATION ON COLE CREEK APPROXIMATELY 3/4 OF A MILE DOWNSTREAM FROM THE LEAK. ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION AND REMEDIATION HAS BEEN COMPLETED AND CLOSED BY KDHE. APPROXIMATELY 230 CUBIC YARDS OF SOIL WAS CONTAMINATED AND SUBSEQUENTLY REMEDIATED ON-SITE. REGARDING APPARENT CAUSE, A SEARCH OF ONE CALL TICKETS IN THE VICINITY OF THE RUPTURE DID NOT PRODUCE A ONE CALL TICKET AT THE LOCATION OF THE PIPE FAILURE, BUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PREVIOUS EXCAVATION DAMAGE COULD ALSO NOT BE EXCLUDED.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EXCAVATION DAMAGE — PREVIOUS DAMAGE DUE TO EXCAVATION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $575,409 reported total cost, $314,843.05 in 1984 dollars, $775,361.535 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.