The More You Know—Private Property Locates

Sher Kirk - Operations Director, Utility Safety Partners

For years now, private property owners have called their local notification centres to ask why the locator did not mark all the lines on their property. Notification centres have struggled to explain the responsibility of the asset owner and the responsibility of the property owner.

The water may be muddy, but there are some general guidelines for understanding what will be typically marked by locators responding on behalf of USP members.

1. The locators will mark (at a minimum) only those assets that are OWNED or operated by the utility. The utility owns the delivery system only up to the meter or shutoff valve. If your meter is on a pole, they own the line to the pole. After the line crosses the utility right-of-way and on to the private property, it is owned by the property owner. Think of it this way: In new developments, before there were houses or other buildings there, the utility owners put services underground and provided access points for future buildings to connect to. THAT is what they own and what they can later mark because they have the maps for where they put those lines.
2. Often, property owners may install more than just the service lines connecting them to the main utility. For example, lines may supply power from the main building to outbuildings, heated/powered garages or perhaps a hot tub or chicken coop.
3. Service lines on a property might have been moved from their initial installation alignment because of the placement of newly constructed buildings, additions, re-placement of a driveway or access, etc. Perhaps an overhead line was moved underground. The utility owner may not have knowledge of where the line currently runs on that property.

Outside of general guidelines, there are some common exceptions. (See how it gets muddy?)

1. Electric and gas utilities will often mark the line from the main transmission line to the house or building if the meter is on the building. Typically, this is because:
   
   • Electric and gas utility lines pose a greater risk of causing injury to someone digging than water or communications lines do. Electric and gas utilities are therefore more likely to go over and above in their efforts to protect the public.
   • When locating a utility line, it is typically necessary for the locator to run an electrical current down the line by connecting to the meter and following the signal down the length of the line, marking the location as they go. This results in the entire line being marked across the property.

So what is a property owner to do? First, ClickBeforeYouDig. That should always be the starting point. To identify what else might be underground on your property, check your title documents for utility rights of way, consider what services you have and if those lines are marked or overhead, and consider what lines may be running power or gas to a second building.

If there are additional lines you think are in your dig area, contact one of Alberta’s private utilities locating companies to come out to sweep and locate those lines before you dig.

See the illustration below as a reminder of what may be there, and what will be marked under the USP locate request. Clear as mud, right?

Image credit: Tennessee 811