S-4505               _______________________________________________

                                         SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL NO. 3044

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Agriculture (originally sponsored by Senator Barr)

Read first time 2/7/86.

AN ACT Relating to excavating; and amending RCW 19.122.020 and 19.122.060.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 2, chapter 144, Laws of 1984 and RCW 19.122.020 are each amended to read as follows:

          Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter:

          (1) "Business day" means any day other than Saturday, Sunday, or a legal local, state, or federal holiday.

          (2) "Damage" includes the substantial weakening of structural or lateral support of an underground facility, penetration, impairment, or destruction of any underground protective coating, housing, or other protective device, or the severance, partial or complete, of any underground facility to the extent that the project owner or the affected utility owner determines that repairs are required.

          (3) "Emergency" means any condition constituting a clear and present danger to life or property, or a customer service outage.

          (4) "Excavation" means any operation in which earth, rock, or other material on or below the ground is moved or otherwise displaced by any means, except ((the tilling of soil less than twelve inches in depth for agricultural purposes, or)) (a) normal farming practices, and (b) road and ditch maintenance that does not change the original road grade or ditch flowline.

          (5) "Excavator" means any person who engages directly in excavation.

          (6) "Identified facility" means any underground facility which is indicated in the project plans as being located within the area of proposed excavation.

          (7) "Identified but unlocatable underground facility" means an underground facility which has been identified but cannot be located with reasonable accuracy.

          (8) "Locatable underground facility" means an underground facility which can be field-marked with reasonable accuracy.

          (9) "Marking" means the use of stakes, paint, or other clearly identifiable materials to show the field location of underground facilities, in accordance with the current color code standard of the American public works association.  Markings shall include identification letters indicating the specific type of the underground facility.

          (10) "Person" means an individual, partnership, franchise holder, association, corporation, a state, a city, a county, or any subdivision or instrumentality of a state, and its employees, agents, or legal representatives.

          (11) "Reasonable accuracy" means location within twenty-four inches of the outside dimensions of both sides of an underground facility.

          (12) "Underground facility" means any item buried or placed below ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, sewage, electronic, telephonic or telegraphic communications, cablevision, electric energy, petroleum products, gas, gaseous vapors, hazardous liquids, or other substances and including but not limited to pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, attachments, and those parts of poles or anchors below ground.

          (13) "One-number locator service" means a service through which a person can notify utilities and request field-marking of underground facilities.

        Sec. 2.  Section 6, chapter 144, Laws of 1984 and RCW 19.122.060 are each amended to read as follows:

          An excavation of less than twelve inches in vertical depth or normal farming practices on private ((noncommercial)) property shall be exempt from the requirements of RCW 19.122.030, if the excavation is being performed by the person or an employee of the person who owns or occupies the property on which the excavation is being performed.

The exemption for normal farming practices occurs when the farmer has knowledge that no underground facility is located in the area to be excavated as a result of:  (1) Previous contact with and response from the one number locator service, or (2) prior farming activity in the same area to be excavated.