Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes > Title 40 > Chapter 8 > Part VIII - Underground Utilities and Facilities

• Agricultural excavator: means a person who owns or operates a farm and is directly involved in the cultivation of land or crops or who raises livestock. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of conservation. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damage: means any defacing, scraping, gouging, breaking, cutting, or displacement of, impact upon or removal of an underground facility or utility or its means of primary support. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Demolisher: means any person engaged in the act of demolishing as defined in Paragraph (2) of this Section. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Demolition: means the total or partial wrecking, razing, rendering, moving, or removing of any building or structure, movable or immovable. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Emergency: means any crisis situation which poses an imminent threat or danger to life, health, or property, which requires immediate action, if such action is taken. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• excavate: means any operation causing movement or removal of earth, rock, or other materials in or on the ground or submerged in a marine environment that could reasonably result in damage to underground or submerged utilities or facilities by the use of powered or mechanical or manual means, including but not limited to pile driving, digging, blasting, augering, boring, back filling, dredging, compaction, plowing-in, trenching, ditching, tunneling, land-leveling, grading, and mechanical probing. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Excavator: means any person who engages in excavation operations. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Forestry excavator: means an excavator who is a logger, prescribed burner, site preparation operator, or tree planter for commercial forestry operations. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Inclement weather: means weather that prohibits or impedes a worker's use of his locating equipment or causes undue risk to himself or his equipment such as lightning, heavy rain, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, sleet, snow, or flooding conditions. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Normal commercial farming operations: means the following operations or activities for agriculture cultivation purposes:

              (a) Operations or activities that do not encroach upon a private utility or pipeline servitude, public right-of-way, or a public franchise area. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12

• Operator: means any person who owns or operates a public or private underground facility or utility which furnishes a service or material or stores, transports, or transmits electric energy, steam, oil, gases, natural gas, gas, mixture of gases, petroleum, petroleum products, hazardous or flammable fluids, toxic or corrosive fluids/gases, including telephone or telegraph system, fiber optic electronic communication systems, or water or water systems, or drainage, sewer systems, or traffic control systems or other items of like nature. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means an individual, firm, partnership, association, limited liability company, corporation, joint venture, municipality, governmental agency, political subdivision, or agent of the state or any legal representative thereof. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Pipeline: means all intrastate and interstate pipeline facilities defined by Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Regional notification center: means any one of the following:

              (a) An entity designated as nonprofit by the Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code and which is organized to protect its members from damage and is certified by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections in accordance with this Part. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12

• Underground facility or utility: means any pipe, conduit, duct, wire, cable, valve, line, fiber optic equipment, or other structure which is buried or placed below ground or submerged for use in connection with storage, conveyance, transmission, or protection of electronics communication system, telephone or telegraph system, or fiber optic, electric energy, oil, natural gas, gas, gases, steam, mixture of gases, petroleum, petroleum products, hazardous or flammable fluids/gases, toxic or corrosive fluids/gases, hazardous fluids/gases, or other substances of like nature or water or water systems, sewer systems or traffic, drainage control systems, or other items of like nature. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12
• Wildfire: means an uncontrolled combustion of natural vegetation. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1749.12