Pipeline Safety
811 Call Before You Dig
Beneath America's cities and rural areas lies a complex network of pipelines, wires, conduits and cables. Some are buried only a few feet - or less - below the surface. Hitting these lines can damage them, disrupting service, resulting in costly repairs and possibly fines and even endangering lives. A federally-mandated national "Call Before You Dig" number, 811 was created to help protect you from unintentionally hitting underground utility lines while working on digging projects.
There are several important steps homeowners and professional excavators should be encouraged to follow before any digging project:
- Always call 811 a few days before digging, regardless of the depth or familiarity with the property.
- Plan ahead. Notify your local one call center by calling 811 or making an online request 2-3 days before work begins. Be sure to check our state map to find out how far in advance you need to call.
- Confirm with your local one call center that all lines have been marked.
- Consider moving the location of your project if it is near utility line markings.
- If a contractor has been hired, confirm that a call to 811 has been made. Don’t allow work to begin if the lines aren’t marked.
Visit call811.com or find more information on Call Before You Dig here.
Operational Safety
The pipeline industry has also developed a number of consensus-based standards and recommended practices to safely operate energy pipelines. Learn more here about the industry’s commitment to move towards their goal of zero incidents using consensus-based recommended practices developed by regulators, industry experts and public stakeholders. Click here to learn more about the individual standards and discover more about pipeline safety standards below:
