Close Calls in Populated Areas: Why One-Call Enforcement is Important
By Katie Hansen - Washington
Every year excavators in Washington State take dangerous risks in digging without first calling the state One-Call number for utility locates. Often these excavations narrowly miss dangerous pipelines, yet excavators take these risks because they face no effective deterrent in the state law unless they actually damage a utility. While some of these near misses are discovered, most are not.
Puget Sound Energy, a large natural gas distribution company in the Seattle, area had a near miss recently. A PSE daily patrol stumbled on someone digging near a PSE eight inch high pressure natural gas line in a residential neighborhood. An investigation determined a geotechnician was obtaining soil samples within a mere 18 inches of the high pressure line. Had he hit the line, a potentially dramatic explosion could have taken place, destroying homes and killing and injuring residents.
Olympic pipeline, a hazardous liquid fuel line has experienced at least two significant near misses within the City of Bellevue. One occurred on Factoria Boulevard, in Bellevue, where the pipeline is just 27 inches below the road surface and is covered with a concrete cap. The contractor had used One-Call and made arrangements for a specific date, but decided one night to do the excavating earlier.Ê After uncovering the Olympic concrete cap they decided to break through it with a backhoe.Ê They stopped when they discovered the red warning tape, and then just covered it with a steel plate - without calling Olympic. This is a heavy commercial area, directly across from Factoria Mall and could have been a disaster of monumental proportions.
Sadly, due to Washington's lax One-Call law enforcement provisions, none of these excavators were punished. The state law only comes into play when a utility has been damaged, not just when an excavator fails to call One-Call. As it stands: a maximum $1000 civil fine is issued if a non-pipeline utility is damaged after someone fails to call One-Call. If a hazardous liquid or gas pipeline is damaged after a person fails to call One-Call, the civil penalty rises to $10,000.
Contractors and excavators take a calculated risk when digging without making the five minute call. Under current Washington State law utilities won't be punished if they don't hit anything. If they do hit something there is a disincentive to voluntarily report it because then they will be punished. This is worse than no law: it provides the illusion of legislative protection without the deterrent.
When it comes down to whether to chance digging without calling first, why take the risk? The difference between a near miss and an incident is a matter of timing, inches and usually just plain luck.
Editor's Note - The Washington Citizen's Committee on Pipeline Safety, which Katie Hansen is the vice chair of, has testified along with the Pipeline Safety Trust and the Olympic Pipe Line Company in favor of a bill currently making its way through the Washington State Legislature.
For more information, follow the links below:
NTSB Report - Protecting Public Safety Through Excavation Damage Prevention
Common Ground Alliance's - Best Practices
