Celebrating 811 Day is a great way to remind Iowans to call 811- the three-digit number that connects callers with Iowa One Call - before they do any type of digging.  Not only is Thursday, August 11^th “811 Day,” it also marks the opening day of the 2016 Iowa State Fair and Iowa One Call will be celebrating the day and promoting excavation safety from their state fair exhibit.  “Fairgoers should stop by the Iowa One Call exhibit located in the Varied Industries Building to greet Iowa One Call’s mascot, Gabby-the-Groundhog and ‘spin to win’ on the 811 Roulette Wheel,” said Ben Booth, spokesperson for Iowa One Call.   On Thursday, August 11^th, we’ll be giving away 811 T-shirts and other 811 merchandise, along with prizes for the kids,” said Booth.  More prizes will be awarded via a special Facebook drawing.  “Each day of the fair, we’ll be drawing for a winner to receive a nice prize via the Iowa One Call Facebook page.  For a chance to win, simply ‘like us’ on Facebook and share an Iowa One Call post.  Our current Facebook friends will also be included in the drawings,” said Booth.  According to Booth, this is all being implemented as a way to educate Iowans about the importance of understanding and adhering to the Iowa One Call requirements.

811 is the national three-digit number that, when dialed on any telephone, connects callers anywhere in the country to their state’s one call notification center.  Iowa law requires all persons planning to perform any projects that will entail digging to notify Iowa One Call at least 48-hours (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays) prior to beginning any type of digging by ‘dialing’ 811 or by submitting an online locate request via www.iowaonecall.com .  Failure to comply with this law may result in cases of financial liability and even civil penalties.  More importantly, failure to “call before you dig” may result in a serious incident that places the public, property and environment in harm’s way.  “Piercing an underground natural gas line may result in a fire and/or explosion, and coming in contact with underground electric lines may cause electrical shock and even electrocution,” said Booth.  In addition to the potential hazards associated with coming in contact with gas and electric lines, Booth said that digging into a water main can contaminate an entire community’s drinking water supply, and that severing a fiber optic cable may cause widespread communications outages and disrupt 911 emergency services.

ENFORCEMENT

The Iowa Attorney General enforces the penalty provisions of the “Iowa One Call law” (Iowa Code, Chapter 480).

• For violations related to natural gas and hazardous liquids pipelines, including service lines, an amount up to $10,000 for each violation for each day the violation continues, up to a maximum of $500,000.
• For violations related to any other underground facility, an amount up to $1,000 for each violation for each day the violation continues, up to a maximum of $20,000.

Iowa law does not differentiate between professional and private sectors.  Homeowners are required to follow the same regulations as contractors and professional excavators.  It is the “excavator” (the party doing the actual excavation work) who is required to notify Iowa One Call.  Homeowners must make the notifications when performing their own excavation work.  Professional excavators (i.e.: contractors and landscapers) who are hired by homeowners are required to make the notification, not the homeowners.  All excavators should take precautions to safeguard any known/existing private facilities that will not be located via the Iowa One Call system.  

Homeowners may be surprised to learn what activities require prior notification to Iowa One Call.  The simple task of pounding a stake or post into the ground can be as detrimental to an underground facility as the blade of a shovel.  For more information about the “Iowa One Call law” visit www.iowaonecall.com.

About Iowa One Call

Iowa One Call, as mandated by law, provides contractors, homeowners, and others who may be planning projects that will entail digging/excavating with a single notification system for requesting the locating and marking of underground facilities.  Online locate requests are submitted via www.iowaonecall.com or ‘phoned in’ via the toll-free 8-1-1 three digit number.  Callers may also dial 1-800-292-8989 to reach the notification system.  The service provided by Iowa One Call is free of charge, as is the phone call and online request. The cost is paid in full by participating underground facility operators.   Iowa One Call representatives handle more than 400,000 incoming calls and coordinate more than two million locate requests with underground facility operator/owners annually.  Iowa One Call is neither a utility nor a locating service and does not own underground facilities.  The process of locating and marking underground facilities is handled by the owner/operators of underground facilities, who by law must respond to all notices transmitted by the Iowa One Call Notification System.

Interviews Available

Ben Booth, the Manager of Public Relations/Communications at Iowa One Call, is available for interviews. Please call 515-278-8700 (office) or 515-707-3998 (cell) to schedule.

 

April marks the start of spring digging season, so Common Ground Iowa and Iowa One Call are encouraging Iowa residents to call 811 before digging to prevent injuries, property damage and inconvenient outages.   

 

This month is dedicated to increasing awareness of safe digging practices across Iowa and reminding homeowners to call 811 before starting any outdoor digging projects. One underground utility line, electric, gas, communications, water or sewer, is damaged by digging every six minutes nationwide because someone did not call 811, according to the Common Ground Alliance. 

 

On April 18, 2016, many people will be planting trees for Earth Day and Arbor Day projects, so it is important to remind your customers to call 811 to have underground utility lines marked before digging begins.

 

Call Iowa One Call at 811 at least 48 hours prior to a scheduled project to allow a professional locator to visit the property and mark the approximate location of the underground utility lines.  Remember to dig around the marks, not on them, and also remember that time, erosion or root structure growth can shift the locations of utility lines.

 

Striking a utility line while digging can lead to injury, penalties, repair costs, and inconvenient outages, so consider this is a friendly reminder to call 811 before you dig in April and every other month of the year.

 

The concept is simple, participating operators will visit local excavation worksites as a way of meeting and recognizing excavators who effectively use the Iowa One Call System as a damage prevention tool.  Iowa One Call will provide participating operators with a vinyl promotional banner highlighting the message, “Before you dig…Call 811 or Click Online.”  The banner would be used for photo opportunities with crews at each worksite – and then used later for educational/promotional purposes (e.g.: publication in the operators/excavators websites, newsletters, social media, etc.).  Iowa One Call would also publish a promotional exposé of the event(s) in their social media, website and newsletter publications.

Iowa One Call has had success implementing similar promotions involving worksite visits where crews posed with ‘call before you dig’ banners.  During those promotional events, representatives of Iowa One Call distributed ‘811 cookies’ to the crews as a way of saying thanks for their commitment to damage prevention (IOC preordered frosted cookies featuring the number “811” in icing).  Arriving at worksites with the cookies was a great way to ‘break the ice’ with crews and initiate a dialog about 811 and “calling before you dig.”  Your organization can customize the promotion in many ways to make it unique to your operations, by providing your own promotional items, or other gift/tokens as alternative ‘ice breakers.’

Your organization’s education and public awareness efforts are an integral part of the overall damage prevention process and greatly appreciated by Iowa One Call. Please consider participating in this ‘811 Day’ damage prevention partnership promotion.  You may order your free banner by completing the enclosed form and remitting it to: Iowa One Call, 9001 Hickman Rd, Ste 220, DM, IA 50322, Attn.: Ben Booth, or by contacting me directly at 515-707-3998, or benbooth@netins.net.

Thank you for your commitment to excavation safety and underground damage prevention.