DigAlertNewslineUndergroundServiceAlertofSouthernCalifornia YearEnd2016 UndergroundServiceAlertof

SouthernCalifornia

Founded in 1976, Underground

Service Alert of Southern

California is a state mandated

regional no fica on center for

anyone planning to excavate in

Inyo, Imperial, Los Angeles,

Orange, Riverside, San Diego,

San Bernardino, Santa Barbara or

Ventura coun es.

Our mission is to prevent

damage to underground

infrastructure through advocacy,

educa on and opera on of an

effec ve, efficient communica-

ons link between excavators

and infrastructure owners.

UndergroundServiceAlertofSouthernCalifornia

POBox77070Corona,CA92877‐0102

E‐mail:newsline@digalert.orgWebsite:www.digalert.org

GovernorBrownSignsDigSafeActof2016On September 29th, 2016, Governor Brown signed SB 661 that amends California Government Code Section 4216. Most sections go into effect 1/1/2017. Here are a few of the highlights:

“Working Day” defined as Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. except holidays.

Area of proposed excavation must be delineated before notifying the regional notification center or members may, at their discretion, choose not mark until it is delineated.

If marking in white could be misleading to those using streets and highways, excavator will use pink to delineate.

Notify the regional notification center at least 2 working days before digging. The date of notification does NOT count as part of the 2 working day notice.

Unless it’s an emergency, excavation can’t begin until a response is received from members within the delineated boundaries of the proposed excavation area.

If ticket expires but work is ongoing, the excavator must get a new ticket and wait a minimum of 2 working days, not including the date of notification, before restarting excavation. All excavation must stop during the waiting period.

If re-marks are requested, the member has 2 working days, not including the date of request, to re-mark their lines. Excavation must stop in the area to be re-marked.

Members will indicate by marking an “A” inside a circle abandoned lines, if known, within the delineated area .

Members may supply an electronic positive response through the notification center beginning January 1, 2018.

Excavators should treat all lines as active. Members could be liable for liquidated damages, liability, losses, costs and

expenses actually incurred by the excavator for noncompliance of certain sections of 4216.

Excavator isn’t liable for damages, replacement costs or other expenses arising from damages if it’s due to an inaccurate field mark as long as they have complied with 4216.2 and 4216.4.

Effective November 1, 2017, Area of Continual Excavation Ticket is a location where excavation is part of normal business activities for that location, including but not limited to agricultural operations and flood control facilities and the ticket is valid for 1 year.

California Underground Facilities Safe Excavation Board established. Investigations by the Board become effective July 1, 2018. Board may recommend enforcement to the CSLB (for contractors and tele-

phone corporations when acting as a contractor), the PUC (for gas, electrical and water corporations), and the State Fire Marshal (for hazardous liquid pipelines).

To read the new law in its entirety go to www.digalert.org/calaw17.html. FREE 2017 Excavator/Law Handbooks can also be ordered from our website. Go to the Resources Tab and scroll down to “Advertising Items”.

Insidethisissue

2017 Holidays ..................... 2

Who You Going to Call ........ 2

Mock Event a “Hit” ............. 3

A Diamond Gem ................. 3

Ron Olitsky Award Winner . 4

40 Years of Service ............. 5

DigAlert Express ................. 5

Sad to See Them Go ........... 6

California 811 DIRT ............. 6

Mobile Apps ....................... 7

Delineate job site

Identify landmarks

Get a ticket

Await response

Let USA/SC contact members who did not respond

Expose lines

Respect the marks

Ticket valid for 28

days

2

2017 will mark the 10th anniversary of 811. 811 can be dialed from anywhere in the United States and you’ll get the notification center for that area. As more and more people are using this convenient 3-digit dialing method, USA/SC will begin phasing out the use of 800-227-2600. We’re not abandoning you. There will be a period where a call to 800-227-2600 will get a message saying that soon the number will be disconnected. Once that date happens you’ll get a message letting you know to hang up and dial 811 or better yet go to our website www.digalert.org and submit your ticket online. For those that can’t dial 811 we will always have 800-422-4133.

2017HolidaySchedule

WhoYouGoingtoCall

In 2017, the center will be closed on the following days:

New Year’s Day (Observed) Monday, January 2 Martin Luther King Jr Day Monday, January 16 President's Day Monday, February 20 Memorial Day Monday, May 29 Independence Day Tuesday, July 4 Labor Day Monday, September 4 Veteran’s Day (Observed) Friday, November 10 Thanksgiving Thursday, November 23 Day After Thanksgiving Friday, November 24 Christmas Monday, December 25

USA/SC will be open but the date will not count as part of the 2 working days.

Cesar Chavez Day Friday, March 31 Columbus Day Monday, October 9

Historically, the day after holidays the center is very busy. Consider inputting tickets through the DigAlert app or online at www.digalert.org. Remember the date of notification does NOT count towards the 2 working day notice.

“ Great display of all that happens with an accidental line strike and how many agencies have to respond.”

MockEventisa“Hit”

The California Regional Common Ground Alliance (CARCGA) held a mock underground line strike on October 13th at the San Bernardino Regional Emergency Training Center. Over 200 attendees at the half day event witnessed a demonstration of an excavation including: delineating the area to excavate, contacting the notification center, utility response to mark out their lines, and hand digging to expose the lines. Just as the excavation began a “gas” line was hit and the line ignited. A full-scale emergency response was enacted with San Bernardino County Sheriff, San Bernardino County Fire, SoCal Gas response teams as well as AT&T’s mobile response trailer. Exhibitor booths from SoCal Gas, Shell, Plains All American Pipeline, Kinder Morgan, Airx, Crimson Pipeline, Utilicoor, Ditch Witch, Nor-Cal Pipeline Services, Western Plant & Pipeline Products, 3M, Ultra Engineering, Johnson Cat and Southwest Gas were available for all attendees to visit and learn about products and services. Cliff Meidl, a 2-time Olympian, was the keynote speaker regaling all attendees with his inspirational story. Cliff became an Olympic kayaker after a horrific 1986 construction accident when his jackhammer came into contact with electric lines. He suffered cardiac arrest due to severe electrical shock as well as serious electrical burns and major damage to both knees. After many years of surgical procedures and rehabilitation, he became a member of the 1996 USA Olympic kayaking team. He competed again in the 2000 Olympics, and was given the honor of carrying the United States flag during the opening ceremonies. Feedback about the event was excellent and CARCGA hopes to hold future events.

ADiamondGemNotefromPresidentAnnDiamond

California has had enforce-ment of its “contact before you dig” law since 1990. However, it was not effec-tive. The Pipeline Hazard-ous Materials Safety Ad-ministration (PHMSA), a branch of the federal De-partment of Transportation has begun cracking down on states that aren’t enforc-ing their “contact before you dig” laws for operators of gas, pipelines and exca-vators that damage those lines. California did not do well during the review by PHMSA. Governor Brown has signed The Dig Safe Act of 2016. One of the changes to California Gov-ernment Code is the new California Underground Facilities Safe Excavation Board that will be estab-lished as well as now spelling out that the Con-tractor State License Board, California Public Utility Commission and State Fire Marshal can now enforce 4216 following a recommendation from the Board. Since 1983 there have been rules in place for safe excavation practices and hopefully everyone has been following these rules. If not, now both excavators and owners of underground lines will be held accounta-ble. Safe digging is a shared responsibility. For over 40 years USA/SC has been a professional, non-partisan coordinator of ex-cavation information to pre-vent damage to under-ground lines and will con-tinue to do so through edu-cation, advocacy and oper-ation of an effective com-munications link between excavators and owners of underground lines. 3

Back Hoe Hits Gas Line at Mock Event

Fire Fighter Keeping Area Cool Before Gas is Shut Off

In the nomination for this years Ron Olitsky Extra Mile Award Winner, a picture was painted of a person who has been going the extra mile for Underground Service Alert of Southern California since 1999. In May of 1999, Board member Mike Romley, representing Equilon Pipeline, explained that he had to resign because he lacked adequate time but offered a replacement candidate: Teri Wohlgemuth. Teri had already worked in the pipeline industry for 17 years and was very experienced with pipeline operations and maintenance. She was supervising the line locators in the Los Angeles Basin at the time. Although Equilon Pipeline changed its name over the years to Shell Oil and now Shell Pipeline, the company has always been a great friend to USA/SC. Teri has never changed her identity and she has always gone that extra mile on every occasion. She acted as Chairman of the Board from 2005 to 2008. When her work assignment was changed, she made sure that the Center had a Shell representative to continue their support. In 2014, Teri came back for more! Teri Wohlgemuth takes the time to get to know the people she is interacting with; she does the research and she comes up with quality results. She follows through and definitely goes the extra mile. In 2006 USA/SC created the Ron Olitsky Extra Mile Award created in honor of former USA/SC President Ron Olitsky. Ron began working with USA/SC in September 1980. In 1986 he become President. He was instrumental in the creation of the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) and served on the board since its incep-tion. Ron had many achievements and participated on many commit-tees - past chairman of One-Call Systems International, One Calls of America and California Regional

Common Ground Alliance to name a few. He traveled all the time, either to stakeholder meetings, committee meetings or to DigAlert safety events. Ron was an avid runner, equestrian and animal lover. He ran every morning no matter where he may have been until his untimely death on October 3, 2005 The Ron Olitsky Extra Mile Award is an annual award for an individual or company who has shown true dedi-cation to efforts that enhance USA/SC’s underground damage preven-tion activities. USA/SC takes nominations for the Ron Olitsky Extra Mile Award throughout the year from July 1st through June 30th the following year. If you know someone or a company that meets these requirements and would like to nominate them, use the following link to fill out the form and submit your nominee.

Board Chair Marshall Johnson presents Teri Wohlgemuth with the 2016 Ron Olitsky Award

FormerDigAlertBoardChairReceivesRonOlitskyExtraMileAwardThere’sanApp

Download the FREE

DigAlert app today

4

AreYouConnected?

There are many ways to

connect

5

Celebrating40YearsofServicetoSoCalJust 3 months after a horrific accident in Culver City when a petroleum pipeline was hit where an entire city block went up in flames and nine people lost their lives, Underground Service Alert of Southern California (USA/SC) opened the doors of a little office in Garden Grove on the 13th of September, 1976. The first ticket wasn’t called in until the following day and then it was relayed to just three members. Since that first ticket, USA/SC has changed with the times to better suit the needs of the excavation community. There was a time when “one call does it all” was a dynamite phrase that captured the Center’s essence. The Center is no longer limited to just telephone communication. Tickets can now be initiated by mobile device and the internet as well as by phone. The transmission time to members is within minutes of the ticket being generated and the Center handles two to three thousand tickets daily. When Underground Service Alert of Southern California began, it only covered Orange County and a handful of owners of underground lines and now covers nine counties in California with over 940 members. Originally, participation in the program was on a voluntary basis for both excavators and owners of underground lines. Today California Government Code Section 4216 mandates who must be a member as well as who must notify prior to excavating. While the nickname of DialAlert seemed to fit well forty years ago, today DigAlert is far more appropriate. No longer simply a “one call center,” USA/SC is a multi-faceted notification center where various forms of communication work together to provide an effective communications link between excavators and owners of underground lines.

DigAlet conference room decked out for the 40th Celebra on Lunch

DigAlertExpressOfftheCharts

Since 2008, DigAlert Express - the web based single

address ticket that anyone can input 24/7 - use has

been climbing off the charts. Join with those that have

found the simple 4 step process to get a ticket that

saves time. DigAlert Express can be found here or on

the app.

Celebra ng 40 years wasn’t the only milestone in 2016 for Underground Service Alert of Southern California. Sadly, we had 2 long me employees re re. They will very much be missed. A er over 37 years, Mary Coolbaugh has called it quits. Chances are if you called into the center the likelihood your call was answered with a laughing cheerful “Good morning this is Mary” was pre y good. Mary worked for USA/SC since October 1979 when it was part of Hood Corpora on. Mary recalled that taking ckets used to involve more work. Once the informa on was wri en down from the caller, the work was just ge ng started for the Customer Service Rep. There was no computer system to transmit the informa on to members. One by one, the members were contacted. Ticket informa on was given to the members either by teletype or by someone actually calling the member and verbally giving the informa on. Despite all that was involved in

the cke ng process back then, Mary said the job was fun. Times have changed but Mary’s smile never did. She could recognize the friendly familiar voices from her many years taking DigAlerts. Mary’s pleasant out-going manner made any caller confident they were ge ng their cket done efficiently. Mary’s wealth of experience and cheery outlook will be missed. Polly Dunn, the center’s resident Shakespeare, re red a er more than

23 years. Polly started as a Customer Service Rep and moved into the administra ve assistant posi on and Secretary of Underground Service Alert of Southern California. Polly wrote the annual newsle er and annual report as well as ar cles for publica ons. She also helped members when their DigAlerts weren’t being received. Polly’s sunny disposi on and quick wit will be greatly missed.

SadToSeeThemGo

6

Mary Coolbaugh re res a er 37 years.

CallingAllIncidentEvents

California 811 D.I.R.T. (Damage Information Reporting Tool) is the

place to report your incident events (excavator downtime, damages,

near misses, and violations). This data, gathered anonymously, is

then reported each year on the regional notification centers websites.

This information will help shape the future of damage prevention in

California. Visit www.cga-dirt.com/ca811 for more information.