The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has ordered Plains All American Pipeline to purge and shut down a pipeline system in California until further notice, according to a PHMSA's Corrective Action Order (CAO).
The order is to prevent another oil spill that affected the Santa Barbara County shores in May.
The PHMSA said in the CAO that Plains must purge oil from Line 903 a 30-inch diameter pipeline that is approximately 129.5 miles in length runs from Gaviota, California inland to Kern County.
The company must then fill the pipeline with an inert gas.
The PHMSA adds in the CAO that Plains must submit a purge plan to the agency's director within 15 days after receipt of the order.
The purge plan must include the identification and the remedy of any anomalies found in Line 903 that is similar to the characteristics that caused Line 901 to fail.
Plains must also provide the vendor who performed the previous in-line inspection from 2012 to present with the field measured data and ask them to use the data to re-evaluate the in-line inspection, according to the CAO.
The company must report any additional anomalies identified to the director.
Plains will also provide the PHMSA with a list of enhanced preventive and mitigative measures that the company will implement to monitor the purge, according to the CAO.
Purging operations should be conducted during the early daylight hours.
Reuters adds that the PHMSA has found that Line 903 has "similar corrosion characteristics" as the Line 901.
Line 901 has ruptured in mid-May and spilled 3,400 barrels of crude that affected the Santa Barbara County shore and its wildlife.
Reuters adds that Line 901 has been shut and empty since the oil spill and the damaged section was excavated and removed.
The PHMSA also ordered Plains to shut down Line 903 after purging and must not operate the pipeline until authorized to do so.
Only the Pentland to Emidio segment of Line 903 may continue to operate at 80 percent pressure restriction.
Reuters adds that Line 903 has been full of crude oil since late May, except for a section that operates it intermittently at lower pressures.
Plains must also provide the PHMSA director with a five business days' notice before commencing any investigation and remedy of anomalies and the conduction of in-line inspection.
The company must also use a third party American Society of Non-Destructive Testing Level III
certified contractor to complete the non-destructive testing analysis.
