SUNOCO PIPELINE L.P. — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2019-11-11

Hazardous liquid incident in MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, DELAWARE County, PA. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 4.1 REFINED AND/OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT (NON-HVL) WHICH IS A LIQUID AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $500 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: 20190376.

Operator ID: 18718.

Reported incident date: 11/11/2019 17:11.

Location detail: GLRJ

Cause detail: DEFECTIVE OR LOOSE TUBING OR FITTING

Cause detail: ON 11/11/19 AT APPROXIMATELY 17:11 THE CONTROL CENTER RECEIVED AN LEL ALARM AT THE GLEN RIDDLE JUNCTION STATION. THE ALARM WAS NOT CONTINUOUS, BUT RATHER ALARMED, CLEARED AND THEN ALARMED AGAIN. THE CONTROLLER CONTACTED FIELD OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AT 17:17 TO RESPOND TO THE LEL ALARM CONDITION. LOCAL OPERATIONS PERSONNEL WERE DISPATCHED TO THE SITE TO INVESTIGATE. LOCAL FIELD OPERATIONS PERSONNEL ARRIVED ONSITE AT APPROXIMATELY 17:36 AND CONFIRMED A RELEASE OF GASOLINE. CONTROL CENTER WAS NOTIFIED OF CONFIRMED RELEASE AND AT 17:38 THE CONTROLLER SHUT DOWN THE INBOUND STREAM AND ISOLATED THE GLEN RIDDLE JUNCTION STATION. IT WAS LATER ESTIMATED THAT TOTAL COSTS WOULD EXCEED $50,000 AND NRC WAS NOTIFIED ON 11/11/19 AT 20:45 (REPORT 1263699). WHEN LEL LEVELS WERE SAFE FOR ENTRY INTO THE STATION THE SOURCE OF THE RELEASE WAS IDENTIFIED AT A VALVE BODY BLEED TUBING FITTING ON VALVE 8112. ALL FREE PRODUCT WAS RECOVERED AND WORK BEGAN TO REMOVE IMPACTED GRAVEL AND SOIL TO BE DISPOSED OF OFFSITE. THE FAILED TUBING AND FITTING WERE REPLACED AND THE STATION WAS RETURNED TO NORMAL OPERATION ON 11/11/19 AT 23:46. REQUIRED 48 HOUR NRC UPDATE WAS MADE ON 11/13/19 (REPORT 1263853). THE TUBING FITTING WAS PART OF THE VALVE AS PROVIDED BY THE MANUFACTURER. POST-INCIDENT EVALUATION BY THE TUBING VENDOR IDENTIFIED THAT THE TUBING FITTING HAD NOT BEEN ASSEMBLED CORRECTLY BY THE MANUFACTURER. THE TUBING WAS NOT INSERTED THROUGH THE FERRULE FAR ENOUGH WHICH DID NOT ALLOW THE FERRULE TO PROPERLY ENGAGE ON THE TUBING. ALL SIMILAR FITTINGS AND ASSEMBLIES IN THE STATION WERE CHECKED FOR SIMILAR ISSUE. SITE INVESTIGATION EFFORTS CONTINUE FOR REMEDIATION PURPOSES. SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT(S) WILL BE SUBMITTED AS REQUIRED. SUPPLEMENTAL/FINAL REPORT - SOIL CHARACTERIZATION AT THE SITE TO DATE HAS INDICATED NO ADDITIONAL VOLUME RELEASED NOR HAS ANY ADDITIONAL PRODUCT BEEN RECOVERED AND NONE IS ANTICIPATED MOVING FORWARD.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — DEFECTIVE OR LOOSE TUBING/FITTING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $158,950 reported total cost, $74,476.439 in 1984 dollars, $183,412.548 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.