Colonial Pipeline Section Neglected For 16 Years Before Record Leak

The company reported having never directly assessed the segment post-construction, only performing a single "nondestructive" test in 2004

A new report filed by Colonial Pipeline Company with federal regulators regarding its 2 million gallon gas spill in North Carolina show the company never directly assessed or pressure tested the faulty section of the pipeline since its construction. Per the report, only once—in 2004—had Colonial performed any testing whatsoever on that particular section, using a “non-destructive” process called Magnetic Particle Inspection to identify a suspected anomaly, which they subsequently repaired. According to Colonial's filing, they never inspected it again.

707 miles of the Colonial Pipeline system run through the state of North Carolina. Of that total, 633 miles—nearly 90%—were constructed between 1962 and 1979, making the large majority of the pipeline over 42 years old. Prior to the 2004 repair, that section alone went decades without inspection, and afterwards, seemed to be completely disregarded for 16 years. That was, until the largest onshore pipeline spill in US history occurred from that same repair sleeve fastened in 2004, which had corroded until it ultimately cracked open and leaked for over two and a half weeks.

The repair in question is called a “Type A sleeve”, which essentially is a compression sleeve fastened around sections of cracked or corroded pipe to act as a tourniquet of sorts. Federal regulators at the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) have requested of Colonial a full, detailed list of the dates and locations of all previous such repairs made to the system (PolitiFi has a FOIA request pending for this information). Though PHMSA condemned the pipeline as a hazard to public and environmental safety, exacerbated by Colonial's lackadaisical inspection practices, in the end federal regulators settled out of court with the company on a promise to overhaul and fix the system. No fines were handed down.

Annual inspection reports filed by Colonial Pipeline with PHMSA show the company inconsistently inspects large portions of their system for cracks and other deformations. In the year preceding their historic spill, records show Colonial only inspected just under 650 miles of the nearly 5,600 mile pipeline for cracks, and 909 miles for corrosion. In 2020 those numbers would rise to 1,161 miles and 849 miles, respectively. Last year, Colonial boosted their corrosion inspections to 2,250 miles, while dropping their crack detections to 864 miles of coverage.

On average since 2019, Colonial Pipeline checks only 23% of their system annually for corrosion, and 15% for cracks. For all inspection methods combined from 2019 through 2020, it’s possible the company inspected as little as 17%-20% of individual unique miles of pipe, with a best-case scenario of around 42% being checked. In 2021, Colonial inspected between 40% and 66% of their system. Given the ambiguous nature of the reporting, it is impossible to know the exact amount.

Also included in Colonial's latest (and final) incident report to PHMSA was the estimated financial damages caused by the 2 million gallon leak—a tab totalling up to over $108M. The release caused over $14M in damage to personal property, and the company expects to shell out over $80M in their efforts to clean up and remediate the environmental destruction it caused. Colonial also put a $2.5M price tag on the actual gas lost (that's $1.25 per gallon). After all of that, the $4.75M fine handed down last month by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality seems almost inconsequential.

Colonial has reached settlements with both state and federal regulators on the issue, and is bound by the conditions of those agreements to continue to provide information regarding the event, which will hopefully continue to shed light on what has become the largest environmental disaster in decades.

Stay tuned to PolitiFi for more details on this story.