COLONIAL PIPELINE CO

Incident Narrative

ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2017, POINT TO POINT (P2P) AND FUNCTION TESTING WERE BEING PERFORMED AS PART OF EFFORTS TO RETURN THE PAPS FACILITY TO NORMAL OPERATIONS FOLLOWING HURRICANE HARVEY. EARLIER IN THE DAY, POWER HAD BEEN RESTORED TO FACILITY FOLLOWING AN EXTENDED POWER OUTAGE. DURING THE CHECKOUTS OCCURRING AT APPROX. 5:20 PM CST, A TECHNICIAN WORKING ON SOMETHING ELSE NOTICED THE PUMP FOR THE 40 BBL SUMP ASSOCIATED WITH THE PAPS FUEL BOOSTER WAS RUNNING ON AUTOMATIC. HE CONTACTED THE OPERATOR ON SHIFT WHO WAS HELPING WITH POINT TO POINT AND NOTIFIED HIM THE SUMP PUMP WAS RUNNING. THE DIGITAL DISPLAY AT THE SUMP WAS NOT READING THE SAME LEVEL THAT WAS DISPLAYED ON THE HMI AND THE GAUGE WAS BOUNCING. OPERATIONS PERSONNEL WENT OUT TO THE SUMP AND TURNED IT FROM AUTO TO MANUAL TO TRY TO GET THE GAUGE WORKING. IT WAS BELIEVED THAT THE PUMP WAS RUNNING AND THE GAUGE WAS BOUNCING DUE TO A LACK OF PRODUCT IN THE SUMP. AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO RESET THE GAUGE BY ADDING PRODUCT TO THE SUMP. A VALVE WAS OPENED AND A PERSON STAGED AT THE SUMP TO MONITOR THE SUMP LEVEL. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PERSON MONITORING THE SUMP WAS UNABLE TO OBSERVE PRODUCT ENTERING THE SEALED SUMP AS THE VIEW WAS OBSTRUCTED BY A SCREEN. THE SUMP WAS OVERFLOWED. APPROX. 159 GALLONS OF DIESEL FUEL WAS RELEASED. NO IMMEDIATE AGENCY NOTIFICATIONS WERE REQUIRED AS VOLUME RELEASED WAS CONTAINED ON COMPANY PROPERTY AND PROMPTLY RECOVERED USING A VACUUM TRUCK, SORBENT PADS AND BOOM. EXCAVATION TO REMOVE SOIL CONTACTED BY THE PRODUCT WAS COMPLETED ON 9/11/17. FINAL UPDATE: VOLUME RECOVERED INCREASED TO 3.8 BARRELS BASED ON CONTAMINATED SOILS CALCULATIONS. CONTROL ROOM INVESTIGATION IDENTIFIED NO CONTROL ROOM OR CONTROLLER ISSUES. INCIDENT ANALYSIS COMPLETED ON 3/27/2018.