§ 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.)