Nebraska MEMBERS UTILITY 1

MEMBER
THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER FOR MEMBER UTILITIES OF DIGGERS HOTLINE OF NEBRASKA/NEBRASKA 811
UTILITY
ISSUE #1
NOV 2013
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EYE IN THE SKY
Dan Maschka
Public Awareness Manager. Northern Natural Gas
Recently, pipeline companies have experienced an increase in the number of agricultural
related excavations causing damage to rural pipeline facilities. Drain tile installation,
one of the main types of agricultural excavations, is on the rise and is one of the leading
causes of pipeline damage.
For many years, pipeline companies have relied on an aerial patrol program as one
method to conduct pipeline surveillance. Some excavators refer to the program as the
“Eye in the Sky.”
Over the last few years, pipeline companies have significantly increased the amount of
time surveillance planes are in the air. The airplanes are capable of covering vast rural
areas in an efficient manner. The specially trained pilots identify agricultural related
excavations in remote areas that might otherwise go unnoticed. If an excavation site is
observed near a pipeline, the pilot attempts to communicate with the excavator on the
ground and contacts the local field operating office to dispatch an employee to the area.
Drain tile installations are not the only excavations being observed by the Eye in the
Sky. In fact, most agricultural related excavations spotted from the air require a OneCall request. The extra surveillance has paid off; the aerial patrol has identified more
agricultural related excavations for which the excavator initiated a One-Call request prior
to digging. Getting the pipelines marked before digging helps to keep you, your family, coworkers and community safe.
The Nebraska One-Call law provides for an exemption of “tilling of soil and gardening
for seeding and other agricultural purposes”. However a One-Call request should be
made for all other types of agricultural excavations such as tree line removal, digging a
pit, building waterways, sub-soiling, chisel plowing, drain tiling, setting posts, water and
irrigation well drilling, terracing projects and pond building to name a few. Using the OneCall system is easy, it’s free and it’s the law. Call 811 before every digging project.
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Aerial View of Drain Tile Installation
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MANDATORY RESPONSE TO LOCATE NOTIFICATIONS
Member Utilities are required per Nebraska Statutes to respond to ALL notices of
excavation submitted via the One Call by either “Marking” their underground facilities or
by providing an “All Clear” to the excavator. (76-2323)
www.ne1call.com/ne-law-enforcement/nebraska-statutes/
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REPORTING DAMAGES – IT’S THE LAW!
76-2326. Damage; duty of excavator.
If any underground facility is damaged, dislocated, or disturbed before or during
excavation, the excavator shall immediately notify the center. An excavator shall not
conceal or attempt to conceal damage, dislocation, or disturbance of an underground
facility and shall not repair or attempt to repair the underground facility unless
authorized by the operator of the underground facility.
Although the above Statute has been in place for almost 20 years, damages still often
go unreported or are only reported to the affected utility and not directly to the One Call
Center.
As a Member Utility, it is your responsibility to ensure all damages to underground
facilities are reported directly to the One Call Center, by the excavator that incurred
the damage. If an excavator has contacted you directly to report damage to your
underground facility, they have not fulfilled their duties to be compliant with 76-2326.
Please advise them of their need to call the One Call Center to report the damage.
http://www.ago.ne.gov/complaint
SIMPLIFY
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YOUR
TICKET RESPONSES
Ticket Check is a FREE service available to all
Nebraska Member Utilities. This web based
Locator Ticket Management System (LTMS) will
allow you to efficiently manage all of your One
Call Locate Notifications while providing real
time, statutory required response statuses back
to the requesting excavator.
Schedule an onsite demonstration of LTMS for your Organization by
contacting Susan Lynch at [email protected] or 402-502-3990.
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REPORTING A ONE CALL VIOLATION
Whether you are in Box Butte or Douglas County, the scenario is the same…
The Excavator calls in the locate request as the backhoe runs in the
background. The Excavator has no intention of waiting for the utilities to
locate within 2 business days – he’s a gamblin’ man, and plans to take his
chances…AGAIN!
Violation of the Nebraska One Call Notification Act knows no boundaries and consistently
occurs across the State. Many times the offender is an excavator that works in multiple
counties and incurs multiple violations across those county lines. If the backhoe is
running in the background over your underground facility, there is a good chance that
same backhoe will be running over another utility next week in another county. If no one
reports the violations and just chalks it up to a “one time occurrence”, the behavior will
continue until damage, injury or death puts a stop to it.
Failure to report a violation not only puts the public and underground infrastructure at
risk, it allows the continuous cycle without any paper trail of historical offenses. Simply
put, if violations are not being reported, how does one address the non-compliant
behavior?
The Nebraska Attorney General’s office enforces the Nebraska One Call Notification Act
and expects all Stakeholders of underground damage prevention to report any violations
of the Act to their office. A form for reporting violations is available for download via the
Digger’s Hotline Website www.ne1call.com/ne-law-enforcement/nebraska-statutes/.
Inquire within your Organization whether a process is in place to report One Call
Violations. When a process has been established, ensure you have communicated that
process with all field employees, as they are the eyes and ears of violation reporting.
When completing the One Call Violation Report, please provide as much detail as
possible. Dates, location, pictures, associated One Call tickets, company name – etc.
For additional information on how to file a complaint, please visit:
http://www.ago.ne.gov/complaint.
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Common Excavator violations
include, but are not limited to:
• Digging without a One Call Ticket
• Digging before the ticket start time and/or before
all the notified utilities have responded
• Digging outside the scope of work as described on the One Call Ticket
• Providing poor information regarding the upcoming excavation
• Failure to report a damaged utility to the One Call Center
Common Member Utility violations
include, but are not limited to:
• Failure to respond to a locate notification
• Incorrect Locates
• Unregistered utility with the One Call Center
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COMING SOON . . .
Nebraska One Call Gets It’s “811” On!
On November 1, 2013 there will be a new look and name for the Nebraska One Call
System, Digger’s Hotline of Nebraska.
Utilizing the talents of the One Call Concepts, Inc. Creative Team; a new logo and website
will introduce the newly adopted name of Nebraska811, expanding on the consistent
811 branding emerging across the United States in the One Call Industry. There will be
no changes to the services and technologies of the current system – just a great new
look!
Stay tuned for updates
regarding the upcoming
website and logo launch on
November 1st!
SAFE DIGGING goes
Social - PASS IT ON!
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Digger’s Hotline hosts
both a Twitter feed and
a Facebook account
(click below icons)
allowing us to share
real time important
announcements and
upcoming events with
our social media fans.
Help us spread the word
by linking our website,
twitter and facebook
accounts on your
company website!
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Users’ Group & Technology Committee Meeting
James Holzer
One Call Concepts, Inc.
One Call Concepts, Inc. (OCC) held its 14th Users’ Group on September 25th and
26th at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. Eighty-four customers and
employees gathered to connect, learn and share ideas about damage prevention around
the country.
In addition to a review of forthcoming technologies, this year’s event featured words
of welcome by Jeff Wiese of PHMSA, a review of CGA activities by Khrysanne Kerr,
discussions of effective methods of advertising led by Chris McMurry of MGH advertising,
presentations on joint efforts at damage reduction in Maryland by two major facility
operators, a review of the method and importance of setting strategic goals by Board
members from Iowa One Call and a special presentation by Cliff Meidl, former Olympian
and advocate for damage prevention.
Since 1997, OCC has annually sponsored a day and a half conference as an open forum
for their customers to network and share ideas or concerns. The economy forced a
“hold” on the popular conference in 2009 and 2010, but it returned more popular than
ever in 2011. Customers were very happy to again have the opportunity to meet with
peers from around the country and OCC’s leadership team.
Meetings have traditionally had three main components: information about upcoming
changes in OCC technology, expert speakers from the wider industry or regulatory
community, and presentations made or discussions led by OCC’s customers. The
overall goal is to foster an information exchange among all participants in an effort to
reduce damages.
If you would like more information about attending the 2014 meeting, please visit
www.occinc.com or contact Susan Lynch at 402-676-4740 or [email protected].
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(L-R) Matt Ruddo, John Buckley, Jill Geyer, Tyler
Nesheim, Dave Stroebele with the 811 Bike
Olympic Athlete Cliff Meidl
Brian Peschel from OCC Systems Div.
Khrysanne Kerr from the CGA
Iowa One Call’s John Barber
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ITIC and your BOTTOM LINE
From the desktop of ITIC and IMAP
Your online Damage Prevention resource center
Over 59% of Nebraska excavators and utilities currently utilize the ITIC technology to
submit and manage their one call locate requests online. Some of the advantages of
using ITIC include instant ticket confirmations, interactive map technologies and ticket
data storage/retrieval. Another, often overlooked, advantage of the ITIC technology for
the Member Utilities involves a significant savings on Locate Notifications.
When a Member Utility receives a One Call Locate Notification that was submitted via
ITIC, an automatic $ .35 discount is applied to that Notification. That may not seem like
much, until you do the math.
Number of Notifications received by Utility per month
500
Potential Monthly Savings if all were submitted via ITIC
500 x $ .35 =
$175.00
Potential Annual Savings $175.00 X 12 =
$ 2100.00
The best part, there is no additional work or overhead needed from your Organization to
realize the potential savings gained via ITIC. Simply communicate to both your internal
employees and your area excavators the benefits of ITIC and encourage them to get
on board. FREE training is available either onsite at your Organization or over the
phone. Contact Susan Lynch [email protected] for additional information or to
schedule training.
HELP SPREAD THE 811 MESSAGE
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Building permits and Public Outreach
Please ensure you provide all City Building Permit applicants information regarding the
need to contact Digger’s Hotline at least 2 business days in advance of the their building
project.
To assist you in the education process, Digger’s Hotline has created educational flyers
for you to display and distribute at the time of the permit application. The 811 Safe
Digging fliers are available for download via our website at http://www.ne1call.com/
resources/education-and-training-center/.
Other ways to spread the Safe Digging Message to your city residents:
• Add a link to Digger’s Hotline on your city websites
• Include our educational flyers in your monthly customer invoice mailings
• Provide white marking flags to all applicants of building permits and educate them on the importance of pre-marking the dig
• Provide your meter readers with 811 Door Hangers to distribute on their routes
• Consider hosting a Digger’s Hotline Safety Meeting for your area contractors*
*For additional information regarding partnership opportunities with Digger’s
Hotline, please contact Jill Geyer, [email protected] or 402-676-1989.
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MAP LINK
Every Diggers Hotline One Call Ticket received via email contains a mapLINK.
This url link can be found at the top of email message, in blue text, includes the
dig site map along with the ticket. Once the mapLINK is displayed, tickets from
the previous day’s ticket list can also be viewed.
The interactive map will allow the member utility to view and compare the dig
site location against the member’s notification area, enabling the member to
see why they received the locate request. Members can use this feature to
research tickets and better manage their notification area by redefining their
utility registrations if needed, to avoid receiving tickets in areas where they
don’t have underground facilities.
Members can also use this tool to make sure the excavator isn’t digging
outside the described scope of the ticket.
Faxed tickets also contain the address of the mapLINK. This allows the
member to manually enter the url address into any web browser’s address bar
and view the dig site location.
The next time you receive a One Call Ticket via email, click on the mapLINK
and check it out! If you have any questions regarding mapLINK or any other
features of the Diggers Hotline One Call Ticket, call the Administration Line
at 866-711-7281 or [email protected].
mapLINK
BACKUP MESSAGES
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Diggers Hotline of Nebraska offers backup messages to all member utilities free of
charge to alert them of any Emergency, Damage, No Response, Incorrect Locate
and/or Non Compliance Tickets.
There are four different methods for receiving backup messages:
TEXT
FAX
EMAIL
PHONE
Different methods can be selected for business hours and after hours.
Any member interested in receiving backup messages by text, email or fax should
contact Diggers Hotline by phone at 866-711-7281 or by email to [email protected].
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WHEN TO REFRESH A TICKET
Question: How long is a One Call Ticket good for?
Answer: The One Call Ticket is not defined by a lifespan, only the marks are.
The below policy explains the process of refreshing and maintaining the utility
markings.
•
Markings provided by operators shall be valid for a period of ten (10) business
days from the proposed starting date provided to the Digger’s Hotline. The person
responsible for the excavation project shall renew the notification with Digger’s Hotline at
least two (2) business days prior to this expiration date and shall continue to renew such
notification in the same manner throughout the duration of the excavation. The renewal
notice shall be valid for a period of ten (10) business days from the proposed starting
date of the renewal notification.
•
The excavator is responsible for reasonable protecting and preserving facility
location markings until no longer required for proper and safe excavation near an
underground facility. If the excavator has reason to believe locate markings are
obliterated, obscured, missing or incorrect, the excavator shall notify Digger’s Hotline
in order to have the facility operator verify, refresh or remark the locate. It is important
that all facilities are marked prior to digging. Notice to the center shall be given at least
two (2) business days, but not more than ten (10) business days, before commencing
the excavation.
WHO TO CONTACT
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CALL CENTER ADMINISTRATION:
Tyler Nesheim
General Manager
[email protected]
866-711-7281
573-636-1554
Michelle Reed
Database Manager
[email protected]
866-711-7281
573-636-1552
Kim Boyd
ITIC and LTM Specialist
[email protected]
866-711-7281
573-636-1566
Toll Free Administration Line: 866-711-7281
TRAINING, EDUCATION AND PROMOTIONAL ITEMS:
Susan Lynch
Jill Geyer
[email protected] [email protected]
402-676-4740
402-676-1989
Follow the link for a full
listing of the One Call
Board of Directors:
www.ne1call.com/ board-of-directors/