HB2708 - 472R - House Bill Summary

House of Representatives

HB 2708

underground facilities; marking procedures.

Sponsor: Representative Tully

X	Committee on Federal Mandates and Property Rights
	Committee on Commerce
	Caucus and COW
	As Engrossed and As Passed the House

HB 2708 removes the exemption for underground facilities operators from marking sewer systems installed before December 31, 2005.

Summary of the proposed strike-everything amendment to HB 2708

History

Beginning in 1990, every public utility, municipal corporation and underground facility owner was statutorily required to be a member of a one-call notification center, either statewide or serving each county in which the entity had underground facilities. Arizona Blue Stake, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation formed by member utility owners to comply with the statutory requirement. After a person identifies an excavation site, the excavator calls Arizona Blue Stake to request that the underground facilities of the site be located and marked. Arizona Blue Stake sends a notice to all of the utility companies with the information about the request. The owners of the underground facilities have two working days to respond. The companies will either mark their underground facilities by the proper means or let the person know that there is no conflict for their utility. Markings are valid for 15 working days. The Arizona Corporation Commission enforces the use of the one-call notification center for all utilities.

In 2005, Arizona enacted legislation to require all new and active underground facilities in any real property after December 31, 2005, to be installed with a detectible underground location device unless the facility is detectable by an above ground electronic locating device. In addition the legislation required an underground facilities operator of a sewer system to locate and mark the underground sewer facilities owned by another person if the underground facilities were installed after December 31, 2005, and they were located in the public street, alley, right-of-way dedicated to the public use or utility easement unless the customer refuses to grant access to the property. An underground facilities operator of a sewer system is required to keep installation records of the sewer lines and use the records in locating and marking the sewer lines.

Provisions

· Adds underground facilities owned by another person and installed before December 31, 2005 to the facilities that an operator of a sewer system is responsible for locating and marking.

· Stipulates that underground facilities installed after December 31, 2005 must be located by referring to installation records of the facility and by using a statutorily approved method. Additionally, underground facilities installed before January 1, 2006 may be located using installation records or other records relating to the facility, but must also use statutorily approved methods.

· Eliminates the exemption from an obligation for a person to represent that an underground sewer facility is abandoned if it was installed on or before December 31, 2005, and it is not owned by an underground facilities operator of a sewer system.

· Exempts an owner or occupant of real property where underground facilities are buried, from the requirement to be a member of the one-call notification center if the facilities are used solely to furnish services or commodities to that property, and no part of the facilities are located in a public street, alley or right-of-way dedicated to public use.

· Removes surface extensions of underground facilities from the statutorily authorized methods for locating underground facilities.

· Modifies the definition of underground facility to items located in any public street, alley, right-of-way dedicated to pubic use or utility easement or a state highway.

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Forty-seventh Legislature