Colonial began to gather gasoline from Gulf Coast refiners the previous week to ship supplies on its distillate line to terminals in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina, it noted. It began to implement construction of a bypass around the affected Line No. 1 segment on Sept. 17 under initially favorable weather conditions. It initially estimated that 6,000-8,000 bbl of gasoline had leaked.
The governors of the five states issued executive orders temporarily suspending various state and federal regulations that potentially could have impeded delivery of gasoline supplies, Colonial said. “In addition, fuel shippers continue to implement contingency plans to further mitigate potential disruptions to their operations,” it said on Sept. 17.
Under PHMSA’s order, Colonial must complete mechanical and metallurgical testing and a failure analysis of the failed pipe by an independent laboratory or expert within 45 days of excavation and exposure of the assumed failure site, and perform an in-line inspection of the affected pipeline segment within 90 days of restarting it to ensure there has been no metal loss, deformation, or other damage.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].