On December 11, 2012, at 12:41 p.m. eastern standard time, a buried 20-inch-diameter interstate natural gas transmission pipeline (Line SM-80), owned and operated by Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation, ruptured in a sparsely populated area, about 106 feet west of Interstate 77 near Route 21 and Derricks Creek Road, in Sissonville, West Virginia. About 20 feet of pipe was separated and ejected from the underground pipeline and landed more than 40 feet from its original location. According to Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation, the maximum allowable operating pressure of the pipeline was 1,000 pounds per square inch, gauge, and the operating pressure at the time of the rupture was about 929 pounds per square inch, gauge.