I

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 4394

To provide for the establishment of mandatory State-operated comprehensive

one-call systems to protect natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines

and all other underground facilities from being damaged by any excavations, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 11, 1994

Mr. PALLONE introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to the

Committees on Public Works and Transportation and Energy and Commerce

A BILL

To provide for the establishment of mandatory State-operated comprehensive one-call systems to protect natural

gas and hazardous liquid pipelines and all other underground facilities from being damaged by any excavations,

and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Comprehensive One5 Call Notification Act of 1994’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—
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1 (1) since the 1950s, steadily increasing develop2 ment of infrastructure has resulted in the construc3 tion of underground facilities throughout the United

4 States, including natural gas pipelines, hazardous

5 liquid pipelines, water pipelines, steam pipelines,

6 telephone lines, electric lines, fiber optic lines, cable

7 television lines, sewer pipelines, and dedicated traffic

8 control, emergency communication, and alarm lines;

9 (2) these underground facilities offer a safe and

10 economical means of providing essential services to

11 the public;

12 (3) the vast majority of accidents involving

13 these facilities are caused by nearby excavation,

14 demolition, or tunneling activities, known as third15 party damage;

16 (4) accidents resulting from third-party damage

17 present an unnecessary risk to public safety and the

18 environment;

19 (5) costs arising from third-party damage are

20 ultimately paid by consumers;

21 (6) in the case of interstate facilities, consumers

22 in one State may pay for damages incurred in an23 other State;

24 (7) to prevent third-party damage, the owners

25 of some underground facilities have initiated one-call
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1 (or ‘‘call before you dig’’) programs, and some

2 States have mandated one-call programs, although

3 the scope and effectiveness of these programs is in4 consistent;

5 (8) to maximize the effectiveness of one-call

6 programs, national standards are needed;

7 (9) these standards should apply, without ex8 ception, to all excavation near any underground fa9 cilities; and

10 (10) these standards should produce one-call

11 systems which are simple to use, with a single tele12 phone number established which excavators must

13 call to obtain information on the location of any type

14 of underground facility anywhere in the United

15 States.

16 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

17 For purposes of this Act, the term—

18 (1) ‘‘damage’’ means any impact or contact

19 with an underground facility, its appurtenances, or

20 its protective coating, or weakening of the support

21 for the facility or protective housing, which requires

22 repair;

23 (2) ‘‘excavation’’ means any operation in which

24 earth, rock, or other material in the ground is

25 moved, removed, or otherwise displaced by means of
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1 any tools, equipment, or explosive, and includes,

2 without limitation, grading, boring, milling, trench3 ing, tunneling, scraping, tree and root removal, cable

4 or pipe plowing, pile driving, wrecking, razing, rend5 ing, or removing any structure or mass material, but

6 shall not include the tilling of soil for agricultural

7 purposes to a depth of 18 inches or less;

8 (3) ‘‘facility operator’’ means any person who

9 owns or operates an underground facility, except for

10 any person who is the owner of real property where11 in are located underground facilities for the purpose

12 of furnishing services or materials only to himself or

13 occupants of such property;

14 (4) ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary of Trans15 portation; and

16 (5) ‘‘underground facility’’ means any under17 ground line, system, or structure used for producing,

18 gathering, storing, conveying, transmitting, or dis19 tributing natural gas, hazardous liquids, communica20 tion, electricity, petroleum, petroleum products,

21 water, steam, sewerage, or any other commodities

22 the Secretary determines to be similar and appro23 priate.
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1 SEC. 4. NATIONWIDE DEDICATED NUMBER.

2 Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act,

3 the Federal Communications Commission shall establish

4 a nationwide dedicated telephone number to be used by

5 local or regional underground facility location services,

6 and by one-call systems established pursuant to this Act.

7 SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE ONE-CALL SYSTEMS.

8 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Each State shall, within 3 years

9 after the date of enactment of this Act, establish a com10 prehensive statewide one-call notification system, in ac11 cordance with this Act, to protect all underground facili12 ties from damage due to any excavation.

13 (b) STATE SANCTIONS FOR NONPARTICIPATION.—

14 The Secretary may impose a prohibition, applicable to a

15 State that does not comply with subsection (a), on the ap16 proval of any projects or the awarding of any grants under

17 title 23, United States Code, other than projects or grants

18 for safety where the Secretary determines, based on acci19 dent or other appropriate data submitted by the State,

20 that the principal purpose of the project is an improve21 ment in safety to resolve a demonstrated safety problem

22 and likely will result in a significant reduction in, or avoid23 ance of, accidents.

24 SEC. 6. ELEMENTS OF SYSTEM.

25 Each State one-call system established under section

26 5(a) shall—
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1 (1) have a designated system operator;

2 (2) operate in all areas of the State containing

3 underground facilities;

4 (3) apply to all excavations and to all under5 ground facility operators, except as provided by this

6 Act;

7 (4) employ mechanisms, such as the issuance of

8 excavation or building permits, to ensure that the

9 general public, and in particular all excavators, are

10 aware of the one-call telephone number and the re11 quirements and penalties of the State system relat12 ing to excavations;

13 (5) require that any person conducting an exca14 vation must contact the one-call system at least 3

15 business days, and not more than 10 business days,

16 before excavation begins;

17 (6) receive and record appropriate information

18 from excavators about intended excavations, includ19 ing—

20 (A) the name of the person contacting the

21 one-call system;

22 (B) the name, address, and telephone num23 ber of the excavator; and

24 (C) the specific location of the intended ex25 cavation, along with the starting date thereof
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1 and a description of the intended excavation ac2 tivity;

3 (7) inform excavators of the identity of facility

4 operators who will be notified of the intended exca5 vation;

6 (8) inform excavators of any procedures that

7 the State has determined must be followed when ex8 cavating;

9 (9) inform facility operators of any intended ex10 cavations that may be in the vicinity of their under11 ground facilities;

12 (10) require facility operators to locate and

13 mark, in accordance with standards established by

14 the State, their underground facilities in the vicinity

15 of an intended excavation within no more than 3

16 business days after notification of such intended ex17 cavation, and to supervise such excavation as nec18 essary;

19 (11) provide for penalties and enforcement as

20 described in section 7;

21 (12) maintain records on each notice of intent

22 to excavate for at least 7 years;

23 (13) establish procedures to promote the timely

24 acquisition of information on previously unknown

25 underground facility locations;
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1 (14) provide for an appropriate waiver of timely

2 compliance with system requirements in emergency

3 circumstances in which public safety is endangered,

4 as long as the one-call system is notified at the earli5 est practicable time;

6 (15) establish an appropriate schedule of fees to

7 be imposed on facility operators to cover the costs of

8 establishing, maintaining, and operating the one-call

9 system; and

10 (16) provide an opportunity for citizen suits to

11 enforce the requirements of this section.

12 SEC. 7. PENALTIES AND ENFORCEMENT.

13 (a) GENERAL PENALTIES.—Each State one-call sys14 tem established under section 5(a) shall provide that any

15 excavator or facility operator who violates the require16 ments of the system shall be liable for a civil penalty of

17 not more than $25,000 for each violation for each day that

18 violation persists, except that the maximum civil penalty

19 shall not exceed $500,000 for any related series of viola20 tions and the minimum civil penalty for a violation shall

21 be not less than $250.

22 (b) INCREASED PENALTIES.—If a violation results in

23 damage to an underground facility resulting in death, seri24 ous bodily harm, or actual damage to property exceeding

25 $50,000, or damage to an underground hazardous liquid
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1 pipeline facility resulting in the release of more than 50

2 barrels of product, the penalties may be increased, and

3 an additional penalty of imprisonment may be assessed.

4 (c) DECREASED PENALTIES.—A State one-call sys5 tem may provide for reduced penalties for a violation, that

6 results in or could result in damage, that is promptly re7 ported by the violator.

8 (d) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF.—Each State one-call sys9 tem shall provide for appropriate injunctive relief.

10 (e) REVOCATION OF LICENSE.—Each State one-call

11 system shall include procedures for the revocation of a li12 cense or permit to do business of any excavator deter13 mined to be a habitual violator of the requirements of the

14 system.

15 (f) IMMEDIATE CITATION OF VIOLATIONS.—A State

16 one-call system may include procedures for issuing a cita17 tion of violation at the site and time of the violation.

18 SEC. 8. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.

19 (a) COORDINATION WITH OTHER RESPONSIBIL20 ITIES.—The Secretary shall coordinate the implementa21 tion of this Act with the implementation of the Natural

22 Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 and the Hazardous Liq23 uid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979.

24 (b) MODEL PROGRAM.—Within 1 year after the date

25 of enactment of this Act, the Office of Pipeline Safety of
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1 the Department of Transportation shall draft and make

2 available to States a model one-call system program, along

3 with such additional guidance as the Secretary considers

4 appropriate, to assist the States in complying with this

5 Act. Such model program may be amended in response

6 to reports submitted by the States pursuant to section 10.

7 (c) PUBLIC EDUCATION.—The Secretary shall de8 velop public service announcements to be broadcast or

9 published to educate the public about one-call notification

10 systems, including the national phone number.

11 SEC. 9. ALTERNATE FORM OF SYSTEM.

12 A State that wishes to establish or maintain a one13 call system that differs from the requirements of this Act

14 may petition the Secretary for approval of such system.

15 The Secretary shall approve such a petition within 1

16 month after receipt of the petition, if the proposed system

17 is at least as protective of the public health and safety

18 as a system described in this Act. The Secretary shall in19 form a State of the reasons for the denial of a petition

20 under this section.

21 SEC. 10. STATE REPORTS.

22 Within 54 months after the date of enactment of this

23 Act, and annually thereafter each State shall report to

24 Congress and the Office of Pipeline Safety of the Depart25 ment of Transportation on the status of their one-call no-
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1 tification system and its requirements. The report shall

2 contain data on the operation and effectiveness of the one3 call system including—

4 (1) the status of its law establishing the one5 call system;

6 (2) the number of notification requests received

7 annually;

8 (3) the effectiveness of the method of under9 ground facility marking required;

10 (4) the degree of excavator compliance;

11 (5) the number of incidents where underground

12 facilities were damaged and the type of damage to

13 such facilities;

14 (6) the number of deaths and injuries and the

15 estimate amount of property loss resulting from

16 damage to underground facilities;

17 (7) the extent to which all underground facili18 ties participate; and

19 (8) any other relevant information.

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