Mo. Rev. Stat. § 319.015 — MO Code / Chapter 319 / Section 319.015
319.015 Definitions.
Status: in_force

319.015. Definitions. — For the purposes of sections 319.010 to 319.050 , the following terms mean:

(1) "Approximate location" , a strip of land not wider than the width of the underground facility plus two feet on either side thereof. In situations where reinforced concrete, multiplicity of adjacent facilities or other unusual specified conditions interfere with location attempts, the owner or operator shall designate to the best of his, her, or its ability an approximate location of greater width;

(2) "Best practices" , the damage prevention recommended standard for protecting vital underground facilities issued by the Common Ground Alliance, sponsored by the Department of Transportation as described in 49 U.S.C. Section 6105(a), as amended. The Common Ground Alliance Best Practices shall be read in conjunction with Missouri law; in any instance in which such best practices conflict with state law, state law shall control;

(3) "Careful and prudent" , conducting excavation using best practices;

(4) "Design request" , a request from any person for facility location information for design purposes only;

(5) "Detectible underground location device" , any device that is installed underground and that is capable of being detected from above ground with an electronic locating device, including a locator strip or locator wire;

(6) "Electronic white lining" , the process in which an excavator identifies where a proposed excavation will occur by drawing a polygon shape on a GIS map, transmitted in a manner that may then be delivered by the notification center to its member operator;

(7) "Emergency" , a sudden, unexpected occurrence, presenting a clear and imminent danger demanding immediate action to prevent or mitigate loss or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. "Unexpected occurrence" includes, but is not limited to, thunderstorms, high winds, ice or snow storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, or other soil or geologic movements, riots, accidents, water or wastewater pipe breaks, vandalism, or sabotage;

(8) "Excavation" , any operation in which earth, rock or other material in or on the ground is moved, removed or otherwise displaced by means of any tools, equipment or explosives and includes, without limitation, backfilling, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, pulling material from a ditch not in conjunction with routine road maintenance, drilling, well-drilling, augering, boring, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing, plowing-in, pulling-in, ripping, driving, and demolition of structures. Exemptions to this definition include: routine road maintenance, the use of mechanized tools and equipment to break and remove pavement and masonry down only to the depth of such pavement or masonry on roads dedicated to the public use for vehicular traffic, the tilling of soil for agricultural purposes when such excavation does not exceed sixteen inches in depth, the installation of marking flags and stakes and the use of pressurized air to disintegrate and the suction to remove earth, rock, or other materials for the location of underground facilities. Backfilling or moving earth on the ground in connection with other excavation operations at the same site shall not be deemed separate instances of excavation. For railroads regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration, excavation shall not include any excavating done by a railroad when such excavating is done entirely on land that the railroad owns or on which the railroad operates, or in the event of an emergency, excavating done by a railroad on adjacent land;

(9) "Excavator" , any person making one or more excavations who is required to make notices of excavation under the requirements of sections 319.010 to 319.050 ;

(10) "Locate status" , the underground facility owner's designation of the status of the locate request to the notification center which then makes that information available to the person making the locate request through electronic or other means;

(11) "Locator strip" , a type of detectible underground location device that consists of a plastic or other durable material ribbon containing a material capable of being detected from above ground with an electronic locating device and color coded by type of underground facility;

(12) "Locator wire" , a type of detectible underground location device that consists of a copper wire or metallic, conductive, noncorrosive trace wire capable of being detected from above ground with an electronic locating device;

(13) "Marking" , the use of paint, flags, stakes, or other clearly identifiable materials to show the field location of underground facilities, or the area of proposed excavation, in accordance with the marking standards for underground facilities as designated by the Common Ground Alliance Best Practices except that "approximate location" shall comply with the requirements as set forth in subdivision (1) of this section;

(14) "Notification center" , a statewide organization operating twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year on a not-for-profit basis, supported by a majority of the underground facility owners in the state of Missouri;

(15) "Notification center participant" , an underground facility owner who is a member and participant in the notification center;

(16) "Permitted project" , a project for which a permit for the work to be performed is required to be issued by a local, state or federal agency and, as a prerequisite to receiving such permit, the applicant is required to notify all underground facility owners in the area of the work for purposes of identifying the location of existing underground facilities;

(17) "Person" , any individual, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, cooperative, municipality, political subdivision, governmental unit, department or agency and shall include a notification center and any trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof;

(18) "Pipeline facility" includes all parts of a facility through which a hazardous liquid or gas moves in transportation including, but not limited to, pipe, valves and other appurtenances connected to pipe, pumping units, fabricated assemblies associated with pumping units, metering and delivery stations and fabricated assemblies therein, and breakout tanks;

(19) "Reasonable care" , includes compliance with Common Ground Alliance Best Practices;

(20) "Start date of work" , the date provided by the excavator on the notice of intent to excavate that identifies the date of intention to begin excavation;

(21) "State plane coordinates" , a system of locating a point on a flat plane developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and utilized by state agencies, local governments, and other persons to designate the site of a construction project;

(22) "Trenchless excavation" , horizontal excavation parallel to the surface of the earth which does not use trenching or vertical digging as the primary means of excavation, including but not limited to directional boring, tunneling, or augering;

(23) "Underground facility" , any item of personal property which shall be buried or placed below ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, storm drainage, sewage, telecommunications service, broadband service, cable television service, electricity, oil, gas, hazardous liquids or other substances, and shall include but not be limited to pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, vaults, fiber optic or other lines, wires, manholes, attachments, or appurtenances, and those portions of pylons or other supports below ground that are within any public or private street, road or alley, right-of-way dedicated to the public use or utility easement of record, or prescriptive easement. If gas distribution lines or electric lines, telecommunications or broadband facilities, cable television facilities, water service lines, water system, storm drainage or sewer system lines, other than those used for vehicular traffic control, lighting of streets and highways and communications for emergency response, are located on private property and are owned solely by the owner or owners of such private property, such lines or facilities receiving service shall not be considered underground facilities for purposes of this chapter, except at locations where they cross or lie within an easement or right-of-way dedicated to public use or owned by a person other than the owner of the private property. Water and sanitary sewer lines providing service to private property that are owned solely by the owner of such property shall not be considered underground facilities at any location. A structure that transports only storm water drainage under roadways, driveways, or railways shall not be considered an underground facility;

(24) "Underground facility owner" , any person who owns or operates underground facilities;

(25) "Working day" , every day, except Saturday, Sunday or a legally declared state or federal holiday.

(L. 1976 S.B. 583 § 2, A.L. 1991 S.B. 214 & 264, A.L. 2001 H.B. 425, A.L. 2008 H.B. 1779, A.L. 2014 H.B. 1867, A.L. 2025 S.B. 133)