HB2708 - 472R - House Bill Summary

House of Representatives

HB 2708

underground facilities; marking procedures.

Sponsor: Representative Tully

w/d	Committee on Federal Mandates and Property Rights
w/d	Committee on Commerce
DPA	Committee on Transportation
DPA	Caucus and COW
x	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.

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

· Allows for the use of available installation records or other records relating to the facility when locating an underground facility installed before December 31, 2005.

· Clarifies that Homeowners’ Associations that own underground sewer facilities located in a public right-of-way are not responsible for marking underground facilities by including them in the definition of “person” and exempting them from the definition of “underground facilities operators.”

· Prohibits a building official or political subdivision from requiring the installation of one or more sewer clean-outs for the purposes of locating an underground facility except as required by building code.

· Makes other technical and conforming changes.

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Forty-seventh Legislature