What a Farm Operator Needs to Know about Underground Private Facilities

What a Farm Operator Needs to Know about Underground Private Facilities by Claude Anderson, MNOPS A. CALL 811 TO NOTIFIES OPERATORS TO LOCATE THEIR FACILITIES "Call or click before you dig!" You have heard it before, you know IF you call 811, click www.gopherstateonecall.com or file online you will greatly reduce the chance of damage to an underground utility. But what exactly does the call to 811 mean? Do all of the underground facilities at your excavation site get marked? Excavation can be a common activity for a farm operator or landowner. Examples of typical rural excavations include: (a) installing or repairing drain tile, (b) fencing, (c) well drilling, (d) burying a wire, pipe or anything else, (e) digging a foundation, (f) setting a pole, (g) cultivating, plowing or any field activity to a depth greater than 18-inches, (h) extending a gas line from a farm tap, (i) installing a well or (j) ditch cleaning, contouring, grading or changing of the land. Minnesota’s excavation safety law, MS 216D, requires that anyone doing excavation must contact Gopher State One Call "GSOC" center before doing so. Whether you call 811 or file online at www.gopherstateonecall.com GSOC notifies the public utilities in your excavation area and they will locate any facilities they have within the area of excavation. Excavation damage to underground facilities is a major threat to a facility as well as to the excavator that may unintentionally damage the facility. Protecting these facilities is an ongoing task. Underground facilities can be classified as public facilities or private facilities. Public facilities that are owned and operated by utilities include, natural gas pipelines, hazardous liquid pipelines, underground electrical cables, fiber optic and electrical communication cables, water lines and sewer lines. Pipeline companies have over 70,000 miles of underground pipeline in Minnesota. In addition to pipelines a large number of power lines and communication cables currently are being installed underground. www.gopherstateonecall.org 2 However, there may be more than the public facility underground lines on your property or job site! B. SOME UNDERGROUND FACILITIES ARE NOT MARKED WHEN YOU CALL 811 Private utilities (also called customer owned facilities) are not owned by the utility and are generally anything "after the meter" or main line. Private systems may be found almost anywhere, these networks range from simple to very extensive and may include yard lights, secondary electric lines, communication lines, water, gas, sewer, video and fiber optic networks. These facilities are typically not part of the GSOC network and will not be marked with a call to 811. Private facilities are largely unregulated. Generally there are no permanent markers, diagrams or even a clear agreement as to who owns these vast private underground networks. Often farm operators and landowners don’t realize that they exist or that they might not be marked. Private propane, electrical and other underground networks are inherently dangerous, are installed every day and are vulnerable since they are not covered by the one-call process. A farm tap (See Fig. 1) is generally located near a natural gas transmission main to supply natural gas for use by the landowner. A call to 811 will result with the transmission line and underground piping to the gas meter in the excavation area being marked. Except for the portion that may be in public right of way, the underground pipeline from the meter to the buildings or equipment where the gas is used will not be marked by the utility even though it may be a significant distance from the meter. Similarly underground electric power lines are located by utility operators just up to the meter (See Figs. 2A and 2B) even though an extensive network of power lines may connect buildings, lights and electrically powered equipment. Water (Fig. 3), propane (Fig. 4) or sewer lines serving buildings or other equipment are also generally not located unless they are within a public right of way. These private facilities must be located by either the owner of the property or the party conducting the excavation. W