SINCLAIR TRANSPORTATION COMPANY

Incident Narrative

ON 5/6/2014, FOLLOWING A 7 DAY SHUTDOWN, A CONTROLLER OBSERVED AN ABNORMAL RE-PACK OF THE CARROLLTON TO MONTROSE LINE. THE CONTROLLER NOTIFIED THE CONTROL ROOM MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR (CRMC). THE CRMC TRENDED THE GIBBS PRESSURE TRANSMITTER, AN INTERMEDIATE PRESSURE TRANSMITTER ON THE LINE, AND NOTED THAT THE SHUTDOWN PRESSURE FOR THE PREVIOUS THREE SHUTDOWNS HAD BEEN LOWER THAN PREVIOUS SHUTDOWNS. SUSPECTING A POSSIBLE LEAK THE CRMC DIRECTED THE CONTROLLER TO SHUTDOWN THE LINE AND MONITOR STATIC PRESSURES. THIS SHUTDOWN WAS INITIATED AT 15:29 LOCAL TIME ON 5/6/2014. THE SEGMENT BETWEEN THE GIBBS AND GORIN MOV'S CONTINUED TO LOSE PRESSURE. THE BARING BLOCK VALVE, A MANUALLY OPERATED VALVE BETWEEN THE GIBBS AND GORIN MOV'S, WAS THEN CLOSED. THE SEGMENT BETWEEN THE BARING AND GORIN VALVE CONTINUED TO LOSE PRESSURE SLOWLY. SINCLAIR CREWS BEGAN PERFORMING A GROUND PATROL OF THE LINE SEGMENT (12.7 MILES). THIS CONTINUED UNTIL A CREW PROBED AN AREA OF, WHAT APPEARED TO BE, RECENT EXCAVATION ACTIVITY AND DISCOVERED A SMALL LEAK AT 11:13 ON 5/8/2014. THE LEAK SITE WAS EXCAVATED, THE LEAK RATE WAS MEASURED AND A TEMPORARY REPAIR PATCH WAS PUT ON THE LINE. THE LINE WAS DRAINED UP AND THE PIPE WAS REPLACED (80' PIPE REPLACEMENT). THE DAMAGED PIPE WAS SENT TO THE ELEMENT LABORATORY IN BROKEN ARROW, OKLAHOMA FOR FORENSIC EVALUATION. IN INTERVIEWING THE FARMER HE STATED THAT HIS SON HAD BEEN WORKING IN THAT AREA WITH A TILING/RIPPER IMPLEMENT 2 TO 3 WEEKS AGO. THE SON HAD BEEN RIPPING ALONG THE FIELD EDGE TO CUT TREE ROOTS SO THAT THEY DID NOT EXTEND INTO FIELD. NO ONE CALL HAD BEEN SUBMITTED FOR THIS WORK. A TOTAL OF 9,000 CUBIC YARDS OF CONTAMINATED SOIL WERE REMOVED FROM THE LEAK SITE. SINCLAIR'S AFFECTED PUBLIC MAILING HAD BEEN SENT TO JERRY SCHULTZ FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS (2010- 2014).