Washougal

Much of Williams Northwest Pipeline’s 268-mile, 26-inch line between Sumas and Washougal, Washington will remain idle this winter while the company tests the line and devises a long-term repair plan after the line ruptured for the second time in eight months earlier this month.

Much of Williams Northwest Pipeline’s 268-mile, 26-inch line between Sumas and Washougal, Washington will remain idle this winter while the company tests the line and devises a long-term repair plan after the line ruptured for the second time in eight months last week (see Daily GPI, Dec. 18).

The Department of Transportation ordered Northwest Friday to not exceed 80% of its Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure on the 26-inch line between Sumas and Washougal, WA. The pressure reduction is the DOT’s Office of Pipeline Safety response to a line failure that occurred Thursday afternoon between the Washington cities of Auburn and Sumner (see Daily GPI, May 5), and will continue until Northwest fulfills certain conditions. The pipeline said it had repaired the broken line and restored it to service Sunday, but began implementing the order and completed the pressure cut by Friday night, switching delivery feeds to the neighboring 30-inch line as necessary to maintain required delivery pressures. Northwest estimated it will be limited to a maximum of about 800,000 Dth/d in receipts at Sumas/SIPI until further notice and will cut alternate gas there exceeding 800,000 Dth/d, and primary gas if necessary. “Based upon customer activity over the weekend, we do not expect customers having primary firm capacity through Sumas/SIPI to be affected,” it said. Due to warmer Pacific Northwest weather and lower customer loads, no service cuts had been made as of late Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman said.

Northwest postponed smart pig runs that had been scheduled fromthe Sumas to Mount Vernon and from the Washougal to Willardcompressor stations (all are in Washington state) for Sept. 23 andSept. 29 respectively. Northwest said the runs will take placeduring the week of Oct. 4 and that it decided to eliminate dummypig runs.