COLONIAL PIPELINE CO — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2013-05-06

Hazardous liquid incident in NASHVILLE, DAVIDSON County, TN. Reported cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 4.5 REFINED AND/OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT (NON-HVL) WHICH IS A LIQUID AT AMBIENT CONDITIONS released, $5,000 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: 20130185.

Operator ID: 2552.

Reported incident date: 5/6/2013 6:10.

Location detail: EXXON REMOTE

Cause detail: PUMP OR PUMP-RELATED EQUIPMENT

Cause detail: AT 0610 ON 5/6/13 EXXON OPERATOR DISCOVERED PRODUCT LEAKING FROM COLONIAL'S LINE 19 SOLATRON PUMP. THE OPERATOR IMMEDIATELY CALLED COLONIAL'S CONTROL CENTER. LINE 19 WAS SHUTDOWN @ 0610 AND LOCAL COLONIAL PERSONNEL WERE NOTIFIED. COLONIAL TECHNICIANS ARRIVED ONSITE AT 0630 AND ISOLATED THE PUMP. COLONIAL'S OPERATIONS MANAGER (OM) WAS NOTIFIED AT 0630, DISTRICT ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGER (DEM) WAS NOTIFIED AT 0640 AND DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS (DDO) WAS NOTIFIED AT 0652. TECHNICIANS DETERMINED THAT A FAILED PUMP SEAL WAS THE SOURCE OF THE LEAK AND REPLACED THE PUMP AS A PERMANENT REPAIR. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT 190 GALLONS OF PRODUCT WAS RELEASED, THE MAJORITY OF WHICH WAS CONTAINED IN 6' BY 8' BY 4' DEEP EXCAVATION ASSOCIATED WITH UNRELATED WORK AT THE STATION. THE EXCAVATION CONTAINED RAINWATER WHICH APPEARS TO HAVE PREVENTED DOWNWARD MIGRATION OF THE PRODUCT. APPROXIMATELY 20 YARDS OF SOIL WERE IMPACTED AROUND THE PERIMETER OF THE EXCAVATION AND IN THE VICINITY OF THE PUMP. THE MAJORITY OF THE RELEASE WAS CONTAINED WITHIN THE CURBED AREA OF THE STATION WITH A SMALL AMOUNT IMPACTING A 8' BY 3' AREA OUTSIDE OF THE EASTERN CURB. AT THIS TIME GROUNDWATER DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN IMPACTED BY THE RELEASE. AN ESTIMATED 150 GALLONS WAS RECOVERED FROM THE EXCAVATION BY VACUUM TRUCK, APPROXIMATELY 20 GALLONS WERE CONTAINED WITHIN IMPACTED SOILS, AND 20 GALLONS WERE LOST TO EVAPORATION. DURING THE WEEK OF MAY 6TH, THE MAJORITY OF SOILS IMPACTED BY THE RELEASE WERE EXCAVATED AND TEMPORARILY STORED ONSITE AWAITING DISPOSAL. WORK CONTINUES AT THE SITE TO FULLY INVESTIGATE AND CONFIRM EXTENT OF IMPACTS FROM THE RELEASE AND TO ADDRESS PRE-EXISTING SOIL CONTAMINATION ISSUES FOUND DURING THE RESPONSE. TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION WAS NOTIFIED OF THE RELEASE ON MAY 7TH. 3/11/14 ASSESSMENT AND REMEDIATION ACTIVITIES HAVE BEEN COMPLETED AT THE SITE. A REPORT DOCUMENTING ASSESSMENT AND REMEDIATION ACTIVITIES PERFORMED AT THE SITE IS UNDER PREPARATION AND WILL BE SUBMITTED TO THE TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — PUMP/COMPRESSOR OR PUMP/COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT.

PHMSA indexed costs: $40,500 reported total cost, $20,948.002 in 1984 dollars, $51,588.481 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.