VALERO LOGISTICS OPERATIONS, L.P — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2003-04-12

Hazardous liquid incident in ELMENDORF, BEXAR County, TX. Reported cause: 22. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, YES DIESEL released, $52,905 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: 20030202.

Operator ID: 31454.

Reported incident date: 4/12/2003.

Cause detail: RUPTURED OR LEAKING SEAL/PUMP PACKING

Cause detail: ON APRIL 12, 2003, AT APPROXIMATELY 02:30 HOURS, CONTROL ROOM PERSONNEL RECEIVED AN ALARM INDICATING A DISCHARGE PUMP LOCKOUT AT ELMENDORPH PUMP STATION. AT 06:00 HOURS, CONTROL ROOM PERSONNEL CALLED OPERATIONS PERSONNEL TO INVESTIGATE THE PUMP FAILURE. THE PIPELINE TECHNICIAN RESPONDED AT 07:00, SUBSEQUENTLY DISCOVERING THE PRODUCT SPILLED AT THE PUMP, AND CALLED OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TO RESPOND, REPAIR, AND CLEAUP. EXTERNAL NOTIFICATIONS TO THE NRC AND RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS WERE MADE AT 08:30 HOURS AND 08:38 HOURS, RESPECTIVELY. A SITE ASSESSMENT WAS MADE, FOLLOWED BY RESPONSE EQUIPMENT AND PERSONNEL ARRIVING AT THE SITE TO EFFECT CONTAINMENT AND CLEAN-UP OPERATIONS. FREE PRODUCT WAS PICKED UP BY VAACUM TRUCK, CONTAMINATED SOIL WAS SAMPLED, AND REMOVED NEARBY FOR ONSITE REMEDIATION. THE CAUSE WAS SEAL FAILURE THAT ALLOWED PRODUCT TO WASH LUBRICATION OUT OF THE PUMP INBOARDS AND OUTBOARD BEARINGS RESULTING IN BEARING FAILURE, AND IN TURN LED TO PUMP FAILURE. PRODUCT OVERFLOWED THE SUMP AND POOLED AROUND THE PUMP AREA. THE PUMP HAD TO BE OVERHAULED IN ORDER TO RETURN IT TO SERVICE. IN ORDER TO ALLEVIATE FURTHER OCCURANCES OF THIS TYPE, THE PUMP HAS BEEN EQUIPPED WITH TANDEM SEALS AND A LEVEL/SHUTDOWN SWITCH WAS INSTALLED ON THE SUMP. 4/20/2010 -- REPORT UPDATED PER RESULTS OF LEAK REVIEW SPRING 2010. NO CHANGE IN CAUSE.

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: EQUIPMENT FAILURE — RUPTURED OR LEAKING SEAL/PUMP PACKING.

PHMSA indexed costs: $52,905 reported total cost, $33,718.615 in 1984 dollars, $83,038.572 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.