1. What is the Oregon Utility Notification Center?
The Oregon Utility Notification Center (OUNC) is the state agency that administers the statewide "One Call" system. The Board of Directors is comprised of Governor-appointed volunteers that administer the One Call Center and carry out a variety of public relations, outreach, and educational efforts. The OUNC is often, mistakenly, called the "One Call Center". The OUNC has contracted with a private company to run the "One Call Center" under Board direction.
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2. What happens when I call the toll free number: 800-332-2344 or 811?
As soon as you make that important phone call, the operator answering the phone at the OUNC's One Call Center, will ask you a series of questions designed to pin point the proposed excavation area. You will be given a reference number and the names of the Operators that have buried facilities in the excavation area. The One Call Center will then notify the affected facility Operators that have underground facilities within the proposed excavation site. The facility Operator (or their locating contractor) will locate and accurately mark their buried facilities with the required color.
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3. When can I start digging after I make the call? May I start my excavation before the two business day deadline?
It is strongly recommended that you wait the full two-business day waiting period. This allows all Operators to complete their required responsibilities. If you start before that time you may be accepting liability for damages.
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4. When I call for a locate, will the buried facilities be marked all the way to my residence or business?
Most operators will locate to their meter, meter base or to the connection point of your private service for no charge. This includes Gas, Electric, Water, Telephone and CATV.
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5. Can I use the same color marking paint as the operator did to maintain my locates?
Excavator’s are to maintain locate marks during the excavation period to ensure that the original marks remain effective for the life of the project and can be re-established.
It is recommended that excavators not paint over the original locate markings with color coded paint, as this may alter who is responsible or liable for, locate markings in the event of a dig-in or damage to the underground facilities.
Good examples of maintaining marks are 1) offset stakes, 2) flags or feathers or 3) bracketing.
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6. When directional boring, am I required by law to pot hole and visually check depth of the buried facilities?
Any time that excavation is taking place within the reasonable accuracy zone you must use hand tools or non-invasive methods to determine the exact location of the underground facility.
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7. What is the difference between the One Call Center and the locating company?
The One Call Center is an information gathering service that identifies operators with facilities in your excavation area. The One Call Center then notifies all operators of your proposed excavation and the operators are then responsible for locating and marking their facilities. Operators may use their own employees to perform locates, or they may hire a private company to perform the locates.
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8. How are fines to be imposed? If there is a fine assessed against me, what happens to the money collected?
Fines are imposed through a complaint process administered by the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC). Fines collected are forwarded to the OUNC for use in Publicity and Education.
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9. When is it legitimate to call for an “Emergency Locate” request?
The specific requirements for requesting an emergency locate are; an occurrence involving an immediate danger, demanding prompt action to prevent loss of life, or to mitigate damage to property, or to prevent interruption of essential public services (as determined by an emergency response agency or the facility operator) or to prevent a customer service outage (as determined by the facility operator).
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10. What is a “Priority Locate/Crew On-site Locate” and what are my options as an operator?
A priority locate is a common term used by excavators to indicate that they are requesting a response for locate marks in less than the required 2 business days. It is a common misconception that a priority locate is a legal type of request. It is not. There is no mention of priority locates within the Oregon excavation laws. Therefore, there is no legal basis or requirement for an operator to respond in a shorter time frame (other than an emergency).
Currently, the One Call Center will inform the excavator that operators are not required to perform the locate in less than 2 business days, but will inform the operators of the request.
As a practical matter, many operators do try to respond to priority locates to the extent that their resources will allow. Excavators are strongly encouraged to plan their work carefully to allow for the full 2 business day response time.
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11. Who is responsible for maintaining facility locate marks, and how long must they be maintained?
The excavator is required to maintain locate marks for the life of the project. Excavators have the flexibility to determine the extent of a project that they wish to have marked at any one time. Once marked, the excavator must maintain the accuracy of the original marks.
Locate marks occasionally are destroyed before an excavator has had the chance to take offset markings, and operators have been consistently responsive to re-marking their facilities. However, excavators that make repeated calls for re-locates, because of their failure to maintain the marks, are subject to civil penalties.
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12. For Design/Pre-survey Locate requests, how long can the request be maintained as active, and does a new locate request need to be made prior to actual excavation? Maintenance of the locate marks and the length of time they are good for is the same as described in question 11, a new locate request prior to excavation is required.
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13. What is the largest civil penalty levied for violations of the Oregon excavation laws?
As of August 2003, the largest fine has been $245,000, with $33,000 paid to the OUNC and $212,000 was suspended for a period of three years. If this company violated the excavation laws again within that three year period the $212,000 previously suspended would become due and payable in addition to further penalties imposed.
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14. Who is responsible for marking sewer laterals … the operator of the sewer main, or the home/business owner?
Sewer laterals in the right of way are a constant problem because some cities/operators refuse to mark them because they say that they do not own the laterals. What can I do, as an excavator, to protect myself?
The Oregon excavation laws make it clear that operators are responsible for marking the laterals within the public right of way. The definition of “Operator” is found under OAR 952-001-0010(13). The laws do not address “owners” of underground facilities, only operators. Please read the letter from the Oregon Department of Justice, found on page 24, which provides a complete discussion and opinion concerning sewer laterals.
The second part of this question concerns what excavators can do to protect themselves from damages caused by non-marking of facilities. The best answer is for excavators to follow the letter of the law to ensure that any damages caused are not through negligence on their part. If damages occur to facilities that were not marked, the cost of repairs should not be the responsibility of the excavator. If the operator tries to force the issue, the excavator should fill out a Request for Administrative Action (RAA) and let the OPUC decide the issue through its enforcement process. In effect, the best protection is to diligently follow the law, and do not hesitate to file an RAA against those who fail to follow the laws.
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15. What is considered to be a reasonable time for responding to Emergency Locate Requests?
During an emergency, an operator is required to respond as quickly as possible. Because of the large variety of service areas, geographical constraints, weather, traffic and many other factors, it is impractical to specify a precise time interval for response to an Emergency Locate Request. An operator is required to make the best effort possible to get to the site without delay. If an excavator feels that an extraordinary amount of time elapsed before an operator responded, then an RAA should be filed with the OPUC for final resolution.
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16. Is an operator’s initials, or logo, really necessary?
The color code indicates the type of facility.
Yes, the initials, or logo, are necessary. There may be more than just one telephone company, gas operator, etc. in the vicinity. Without the operator identification, the excavator would not know that all facilities had been marked. Conversely, if an operator marked “no gas”, without a logo, an excavator would assume – no gas lines. But if there was another gas line operated by a different company, the stage would be set for a potential disaster.
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17. As a homeowner, when do I have to call for locates?
The definition of excavation is very clear: any operation in which earth, rock or other material is moved or displaced by any means; such as planting a tree, putting in fence posts, installing mailboxes, planting shrubs, building a deck, etc.
To be exempt from calling for locates a homeowner must meet the following four specific requirements:
- The Excavator is a tenant or an owner of private property,
- The excavation is on private property of that owner or tenant,
- The excavation is less than 12 inches deep and
- The excavation is not within an established easement.
Other than the exemptions discussed above, any person performing excavation activities must call for locates, regardless of depth.
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18. Does Road Maintenance require locates?
Yes. The definition of excavation is very clear; any operation in which earth, rock, or other material is moved or displaced by any means. This definition includes graders, backhoes, bulldozers, trenchers, augers, drilling machines, blasting, and all other powered equipment.
There is one exception to this rule. Road or ditch maintenance less than 12 inches in depth that does not lower the original grade or original flow line of the ditch. However because facilities can be shallower than when originally installed, it is highly recommended that a locate is requested for ditch maintenance. Responding to an emergency, requires a call for an emergency locate, this includes all private contractors, Cities, Counties, ODOT, BLM, and the Forest Service who do year round road maintenance.
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19. Does the installation of for-sale signs used by real estate companies require one call locate requests? How would you pre-mark the area so it isn’t over marked?
Yes. The law is very clear, installing posts of any kind requires a locate request to be called in at least 2 business days before it is to be installed.
- It is suggested that a flag or stake be placed at the desired location in advance of the locate request being called in and
- The caller should request only a 5 foot radius of the stake or flag be marked.
This will help eliminate excess marking on the property that is for sale.
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20. May I use GPS (Global Positioning System) unit to maintain marks?
No. The marks must be maintained in a manner that preserves the accuracy of the original marks. The preferred method is to use direct measurement to physical objects or offset stakes.
The recreation-grade and mapping-grade hand held devices offered to the general public provide a level of positional accuracy of approximately 2 to 30 metes. Even with the use of a high quality WAAS enabled unit operated under ideal conditions the positional accuracy will exceed a meter.
