Call first, dig it?

Published 2:48 pm Wednesday, March 19, 2014

In spring, many people’s thoughts turn to digging.

Clallam County PUD reminds customers to dial 8-1-1 first. Washington law requires all digging projects on private, public and commercial property to have utilities marked before excavation begins. Property owners are liable for repair costs due to digging accidents.

A call to 8-1-1 two business days before digging will bring utility locators out to mark underground utility lines. This will ensure property owners don’t dig into them and risk injury and/or damage to the lines.

"The 8-1-1 number provides an easy to use, free service that is important to the safety of our customers and greatly reduces the number of outages due to facilities being accidently hit with shovels or other digging equipment," said Dave Proebstel, the PUD’s chief engineer. "Sometimes the damage isn’t immediately apparent and a nicked line can fail later and result in costly and extensive repairs. It’s important to remember this for any digging job that could appear to be simple, such as fence or deck building or tree and shrub planting."