Your Safety is a Shared Responsibility

Hitting an underground utility line does more than interrupt utility service; it risks the safety of the person digging and the public.  So whose responsibility is it to prevent a shovel or a backhoe from nicking a gas pipeline or severing an electric line?

It is everyone’s job because your safety is a shared responsibility.  And it takes everyone to ensure our safety.

• The person digging (excavator) is responsible for contacting 811 at least two working days, excluding weekends and state holidays, before digging.

• This triggers a notice to utilities with underground facilities near your dig site that you plan to dig and they need to mark their lines.

• The utilities send a locator (sometimes an employee, other times a contract locator) to mark with paint and/or flags where their underground lines are located.

• The excavator must honor the marks; this means any digging within 18” of either side of the marks must be approached with extreme caution.  A commercial excavator should use hand tools, a homeowner should be careful until the underground lines are exposed and you can see them.

When these steps are followed, there is less than a 1% chance that underground utility lines will be hit.  When everyone does their part, the lights stay on and we’re all safer.