ENBRIDGE ENERGY, LIMITED PARTNERSHIP — Hazardous liquid — incident on 2009-06-09

Hazardous liquid incident in GOWAN, ST LOUIS County, MN. Reported cause: 18. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, YES CRUDE OIL released, $147,287 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: 20090191.

Operator ID: 11169.

Reported incident date: 6/9/2009.

Cause detail: FILLET WELD

Cause detail: WHILE INVESTIGATING SUSPECTED 3RD PARTY ACTIVITY AT MP 1056.2 NEAR GOWAN MN, PERSONNEL NOTICED A SMALL POOL OF OIL ON THE GROUND. THE AREA WAS EXCAVATED AND UPON INVESTIGATION A CRACK IN A WELDMENT (BOLT SEAL WELD) ON A PLIDCO SPILT + SLEVE WAS DISCOVERED. THE REPAIR SLEEVE WAS INSTALLED TO REPAIR A PIPELINE LEAK THAT OCCURRED IN 1989. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT APPROXIMATELY 5 BARRELS WAS RELEASED. THE NRC AND MN STATE DUTY OFFICER WERE NOTIFIED. MNOPS PERSONNEL VISITED THE SITE FOR INSPECTION. ALL THE WELDS ON THE SPLIT + SLEEVE WERE INSPECTED VIA MAGNETIC PARTICLE EXAMINATION AND WITH THE EXCEPTION OF ONE OTHER BOLT SEAL WELD WHICH HAD A SMALL CRACK (NOT LEAKING), ALL WERE FOUND TO BE GOOD. TO REPAIR THE LEAKING PLUG WELDS, A 2-INCH, 3000 LB SOCKET WELD END CAP WAS INSTALLED (WELDED) OVER EACH OF THE BOLT SEAL WELDS. THE REPAIRS WERE THEN EXAMINED TWICE PER PROCEDURE (ONCE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE REPAIR, AND AGAIN 12 HOURS LATER) USING MAGNETIC PARTICLE. BOTH REPAIR WELDS WERE ACCEPTABLE. ONCE THE REPAIR WAS COMPLETED, THE CONTAMINATED SOIL WAS REMOVED FROM THE AREA AND BACKFILLED WITH CLEAN IMPORTED SOIL.

PHMSA trend classification: significant incident, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: MATERIAL FAILURE OF PIPE OR WELD — FILLET WELD.

PHMSA indexed costs: $147,287 reported total cost, $81,291.065 in 1984 dollars, $200,194.873 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.