EXPLORER PIPELINE CO — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2016-03-31

Hazardous liquid incident in CONROE, MONTGOMERY County, TX. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 960 REFINED AND/OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT (NON-HVL) WHICH IS A LIQUID AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $1,000 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: 20160130.

Operator ID: 4805.

Reported incident date: 3/31/2016 18:55.

Location detail: 109.7

Cause detail: DEFECTIVE OR LOOSE TUBING OR FITTING

Cause detail: ON MARCH 31, 2016 AT APPROXIMATELY 18:55 CST A RELEASE OF ULTRA-LOW SULFUR DIESEL (ULSD) WAS IDENTIFIED TO BE ORIGINATING FROM A MAINLINE PUMP UNIT AT THE CONROE, TEXAS PUMP STATION. THE PIPELINE WAS IMMEDIATELY SHUTDOWN AND THE PUMP STATION WAS ISOLATED FROM THE MAINLINE PIPELINE BY THE TULSA, OKLAHOMA CONTROL CENTER. EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL RESPONSE RESOURCES WERE NOTIFIED TO RESPOND. PRIOR TO THE SHUTDOWN OF THE PIPELINE AND STATION THE CASE PRESSURE WAS 620.4 PSI AND THE DISCHARGE PRESSURE WAS 615.9 PSI. UPON ARRIVAL AT THE PUMP STATION THE SOURCE OF THE RELEASE WAS IDENTIFIED TO BE A THREE-QUARTER INCH 316 SEAMLESS STAINLESS STEEL TUBING AND FITTING UTILIZED FOR THE MAINLINE UNIT NUMBER 2 SEAL FLUSH SYSTEM. ON APRIL 1, 2016 AT 13:18 CST THE PIPELINE WAS RESTARTED, BUT THE CONROE PUMP STATION WAS LEFT ISOLATED FROM THE PIPELINE. ON APRIL 5, 2016 AT 11:45 CST THE CONROE PUMP STATION WAS UNISOLATED FROM THE PIPELINE AND STARTED AT 11:52 CST. THE TUBING AND FITTING WERE BOTH PHOTO DOCUMENTED BY EXPLORER AND PHMSA. THE TUBING AND FITTING WERE SUBMITTED TO A THIRD-PARTY FOR A FAILURE ANALYSIS. A COPY OF THE THIRD-PARTY FAILURE ANALYSIS WAS PROVIDED TO PHMSA. ALL IMPACTED SOIL FROM THE REMEDIATION WAS EXCAVATED, TESTED AND WAS PROPERLY HANDLED.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

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

PHMSA indexed costs: $2,725,000 reported total cost, $1,355,807.198 in 1984 dollars, $3,338,935.859 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.