COLONIAL PIPELINE CO

Incident Narrative

ON 8/14/2020 AT 18:20, A COLONIAL EMPLOYEE WAS NOTIFIED BY A LOCAL RESIDENT ABOUT A POSSIBLE PRODUCT RELEASE IN COLONIAL'S RIGHT-OF-WAY (ROW) APPROXIMATELY 100 FEET NORTH (I.E., DOWNSTREAM) OF HUNTERSVILLE-CONCORD ROAD IN HUNTERSVILLE, NC. THE POSSIBLE PRODUCT RELEASE LOCATION WAS DISCOVERED BY UTILITY VEHICLE RIDERS THAT WERE ON A TRAIL THAT CROSSES THE PIPELINE ROW. THE COLONIAL EMPLOYEE LIVES IN THE AREA AND WENT TO INSPECT THE LOCATION. UPON INSPECTION, THE COLONIAL EMPLOYEE CONFIRMED A PRODUCT RELEASE VISIBLE AT THE GROUND SURFACE AT 18:42 NEAR MILE MARKER 980 THAT WAS BELIEVED TO BE GASOLINE. THE COLONIAL EMPLOYEE CONTACTED THE COLONIAL CONTROL CENTER IN ALPHARETTA, GA TO PROVIDE NOTIFICATION OF THE VISIBLE RELEASE AND THE CONTROL CENTER INITIATED SHUTDOWN OF LINES 1 AND 2 AT 18:43. THE LINES WERE BLOCKED BY CLOSING VALVES UPSTREAM OF THE RELEASE LOCATION AT COLONIAL'S CHARLOTTE DELIVERY FACILITY (DF) AND DOWNSTREAM OF THE RELEASE LOCATION AT THE KANNAPOLIS STATION. THE COLONIAL OPERATIONS MANAGER (OM) WAS NOTIFIED AT 18:44, AND THE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS (DO) WAS NOTIFIED AT 19:00, FOLLOWED BY AN INTERNAL TIER 2 RESPONSE NOTIFICATION AT 19:32 TO MOBILIZE INTERNAL AND CONTRACTOR RESOURCES TO THE SITE, AND ESTABLISHED AN INCIDENT COMMAND POST TO SUPPORT THE RESPONSE. AT 19:43, A NRC NOTIFICATION WAS MADE BY THE CONTROL CENTER (REPORT NUMBER 1284598). THE INITIAL VOLUME WAS REPORTED AT 75 BARRELS (BBLS.) BASED ON THE LIMITED INFORMATION COLONIAL HAD AT THE TIME. NOTIFICATIONS WERE ALSO MADE TO MECKLENBURG COUNTY, US EPA, NCDEQ, AND PHMSA. THE NRC NOTIFICATION WAS UPDATED ON 8/16/2020 AT 17:40, WITH AN ESTIMATED RELEASE VOLUME OF 1500 BBLS. BASED ON ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO COLONIAL AS A RESULT OF THE INITIAL RESPONSE EFFORTS. FOLLOWING CONFIRMATION OF THE PRODUCT RELEASE SOURCE BEING ON LINE 1 (PRODUCT RELEASED WAS CONFIRMED TO BE GASOLINE VS. LINE 2 DISTILLATE PRODUCTS), LINE 2 WAS AUTHORIZED TO RESTART ON 8/15/2020 AT 0:05. THE PRODUCT RELEASE SOURCE WAS IDENTIFIED ON 8/15/2020 AT APPROXIMATELY 12:00. THE PRODUCT RELEASE SOURCE WAS ORIGINATING FROM BENEATH A PRIOR REPAIR (TYPE A SLEEVE) MADE IN 2004 TO ADDRESS A PIPELINE ANOMALY IDENTIFIED THROUGH A PREVIOUS INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT. THE PRODUCT RELEASE WAS REPAIRED BY INSTALLING A TYPE B PRESSURE CONTAINING SLEEVE OVER THE PRIOR TYPE A SLEEVE REPAIR ON 8/19/2020. LINE 1 WAS RESTARTED ON 8/19/2020 AT APPROXIMATELY 21:00 AFTER THE REPAIR WORK WAS COMPLETED. DUE TO CHARACTER LIMITATIONS, DETAILS PROVIDED IN THE NARRATIVE RELATING TO EARLIER SUPPLEMENTS HAVE BEEN DELETED, BUT ARE INCORPORATED HEREIN AS IF RESTATED IN FULL. SUPPLEMENTED ON 9/14/2020. SUPPLEMENTED ON 2/01/2021. SUPPLEMENTED ON 4/17/2021. SUPPLEMENTED ON 7/22/2022 TO INCLUDE UPDATED: DATE AN ACCIDENT REPORTING CRITERIA WAS MET, ESTIMATED VOLUMES OF COMMODITY RELEASED AND RECOVERED, SURVEY STATION NUMBER, AMOUNT REACHING GROUNDWATER AND ESTIMATED PROPERTY DAMAGE. THE ESTIMATE OF AMOUNT REACHING GROUNDWATER DOES NOT INCLUDE LNAPL ENTRAINED BELOW THE WATER TABLE AS THIS DATA IS NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. RELATING TO THE DATE AN ACCIDENT REPORTING CRITERIA WAS MET (I.E., PART A.4.), THE REPORT REQUIRES A SPECIFIC TIME, WE HAVE INCLUDED THAT TIME AS 12:00 PM. WE ARE CONFIDENT, WITH A REASONABLE DEGREE OF SCIENTIFIC CERTAINTY (AS VERIFIED BY A THIRD-PARTY EXPERT), THAT THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED JULY 27,2020. HOWEVER, BECAUSE THIS REPORT REQUIRES A SPECIFIC TIME TO BE REPORTED, WE ARE USING 12:00 PM FOR PURPOSES OF THIS REPORT ONLY.