COLONIAL PIPELINE CO

Incident Narrative

ON 8/6/17, A CONTRACTOR CREW WAS PREFORMING SOIL REMEDIATION RELATED TO A SPILL THAT OCCURRED ON 8/4/17. AT APPROXIMATELY 10:45 CST, THEIR EXCAVATOR STRUCK A BURIED TUBING LINE NEAR THE LINE 01 CONTROL VALVE INSIDE BATON ROUGE STATION. STRIKING OF THE TUBING LINE BROKE THE NIPPLE BELOW THE SHUT-OFF VALVE ON THE TUBING VALVE-TREE AND RESULTED IN A RELEASE OF APPROXIMATELY 12.3 BBLS OF GASOLINE INSIDE THE ACCESS WELL. THE INSPECTOR IMMEDIATELY NOTIFIED OPERATIONS WHICH CONTACTED THE CONTROL CENTER AND ISOLATED AND BYPASSED THE STATION AT APPROXIMATELY 10:56. OPERATORS LOCKED-OUT AND DRAINED THE STATION PIPING WHICH STOPPED THE LEAK AT APPROXIMATELY 11:30. ALL RELEASED PRODUCT WAS CONTAINED ON COMPANY PROPERTY WITHIN THE ACCESS WELL. A VACUUM TRUCK THAT WAS STAGED NEARBY WAS IMMEDIATELY DEPLOYED TO THE ACCESS WELL WHERE THE PRODUCT WAS CONTAINED. THE PARISH LEPC AND STATE OF LA WERE EACH NOTIFIED. A TECHNICIAN WAS MOBILIZED WHO REPLACED THE DAMAGED TUBING SECTION AT APPROXIMATELY 14:15 AND BATON ROUGE STATION LN01 WAS RESTARTED AT APPROXIMATELY 14:35. PRODUCT RECOVERY AND CLEANUP ACTIVITIES WERE COMPLETED ON 8/6/17 BY 11:30. INITIAL INVESTIGATION INDICATED TUBING WAS STRUCK DUE TO FAILURE TO FOLLOW COLONIAL'S EXCAVATION PROCEDURE; DID NOT PROPERLY LOCATE/VERIFY DEPTH OF TUBING PRIOR TO EXCAVATION. EXCAVATOR OPERATOR, SPOTTER AND INSPECTOR OQS WERE SUSPENDED AS A RESULT. FINAL REPORT UPDATE: INCIDENT ANALYSIS WAS COMPLETED ON 1/24/18, CONFIRMING THE APPARENT CAUSE AND PROVIDED RECOMMENDATIONS RELATED TO LOCATING BURIED TUBING. REGARDING ZERO COMMODITY COSTS, THE RELEASED PRODUCT WAS RECOVERED FROM A PARTIALLY WATER FILLED ACCESS WELL, WAS NOT CONTAMINATED, AND THEREFORE RETURNED TO THE PIPELINE SYSTEM VIA TRANSMIX INJECTION.