§ 7001. Definitions
In this chapter:
(1) “Commission” means the Public Utility Commission under section 3 of this title.
(2) “Company” means any public utility, municipality, or person that supplies gas, electricity,
hot water, steam, or telecommunications service and that maintains underground utility
facilities, and any cable television company operating a cable television system as
defined in section 501 of this title that maintains underground utility facilities.
(3) “Damage” includes the substantial weakening of structural or lateral support of an
underground utility facility; penetration or destruction of any underground utility
facility’s protective coating, housing, or device; or the partial or complete severance
of any underground utility facility.
(4) “Excavation activities” means any activities that will disturb the subsurface of the
earth or could damage underground utility facilities and that may involve the removal
of earth, rock, or other materials in the ground or the demolition of any structure
by the discharge of explosives or the use of powered or mechanized equipment, including
digging, trenching, blasting, boring, drilling, hammering, post driving, wrecking,
razing, tunneling, or pavement or concrete slab removal within 100 feet of an underground
utility facility. Excavation activities shall not include the tilling of the soil
for agricultural purposes, routine home gardening with hand tools outside easement
areas and public rights-of-way, activities relating to routine public highway maintenance,
or the use of hand tools by a company, or the company’s agent or a contractor working
under the agent’s direction, to locate or service the company’s facilities, provided
the company has a written damage prevention program.
(5) “Person” means any individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation including
a government corporation, partnership, association, state, municipality, commission,
political subdivision of the State, or any interstate body.
(6) “Public agency” means the State or any political subdivision thereof, including any
governmental agency.
(7) “Approximate location of underground utility facilities” means a strip of land extending
not more than 18 inches on either side of the underground utility facilities.
(8) “System” means the public utility underground facility damage prevention system referred
to in section 7002 of this title.
(9) “Underground utility facility” or “facility” means any pipe, conduit, wire, or cable
located beneath the surface of the earth and maintained by a company, including the
protective covering of the pipe, conduit, wire, or cable, as well as any manhole,
vault, pedestal, or component maintained by a company.
(10) “Premark” means to identify the general scope of excavation activities using white
paint, stakes, or other suitable white markings, in a manner that will enable the
operators of the underground utility facilities to know the boundaries of the proposed
excavation activities.
(11) “Powered or mechanized equipment” means equipment that is powered or energized by
any motor, engine, or hydraulic or pneumatic device and that is used for excavation
or demolition work.
(12) “Hand tools” means tools powered solely by human energy.
(13) “Verified” means the location and depth have been visually determined using careful
and prudent excavating techniques such as hand digging, water excavation, or other
safe means.
(14) “Damage prevention program” means a program established to ensure employees involved
in excavation activities are aware of and utilize appropriate and safe excavating
practices. (Added 1987, No. 86, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1988; amended 1993, No. 118 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2001, No. 51, § 1; 2003, No. 56, § 56, eff. June 4, 2003; 2007, No. 145 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2017, No. 53, § 10; 2019, No. 31, § 9.)