Page 8 - Alabama 811 Magazine 2021 Issue 1

Wallace Jones
How many of you remember the phrase “new sheriff
in town”? Whenever
there was a change in supervision or management, the new “boss” was referred to as the “new sheriff in town”. We have that now
in the realm of underground damage prevention enforcement in Alabama. The “Alabama Underground Damage Prevention Authority” (ALUDPA) has taken over the responsibility of damage enforcement within the state and is the “new sheriff in town”. If you are not aware of what this new “authority” is all about, I will try to give you a quick snapshot of what will be changing.
Since 1994, when the Alabama Legislature passed the first laws about damage prevention, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office and the District Attorneys across the state
had enforcement authority over underground damages. But for years, no one was prosecuted under the law because the AG’s Office and the DA’s
did not have the resources to take the cases to court. They had other, more serious offenses to deal with. Only two or three cases, over a 25-year period, were even considered. Only after a large transmission pipeline operator took a violation of the law to the local District Attorney, and after the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) put pressure on the state to make changes to its damage prevention law, did any changes come about. PHMSA has been grading the Alabama damage prevention efforts for the last four years, and each year Alabama has gotten an “inadequate” rating. To briefly sum this up, Alabama had five years from the start of the
new federal regulations (Pipeline
Safety Act of 2016) to get their program to “adequate” status, or PHMSA is required by that same law to take over the damage prevention program in an effort to curb the damages caused by excavation activities.
In 2019, the Alabama Legislature revised the 1994 version of the
“Damage Prevention Law” to change the enforcement authority. The new ALUDPA was the result of that new law. The ALUDPA has the authority
to impose penalties, both training
and monetary fines, to those that damage underground utilities during excavation. There is now a website, ALUDPA.org where individuals can
file a complaint when they consider someone having violated the Damage Prevention Law. Some of the offenses include: excavation/demolition without a valid locate request; excavation/ demolition before locate request was valid; excavation/demolition beyond the 20 day expiration without an updated locate request; excavation/demolition outside the requested locate area; use of mechanized equipment within the marked tolerance zone; failure to use reasonable care within the tolerance/ safety zone; reporting a false emergency for a locate request; facility was not located or marked; did not locate within the required amount of time; failure to join the 811 Center and utilize the services of the 811 Notification System; not reporting damage to
the underground facility owner; No notification of 911/emergency responders when required. This new law is not a one-way street. It goes both ways. The excavator has certain responsibilities
to fulfill during, and before, excavating, and the underground facilities owners have responsibilities to fulfill.
To learn more about the new processes to submit complaints related to excavation damage, to find out more about what is in the new law about training and monetary fines, explore the ALUDPA website at ALUDPA.
org. There are tabs you can click on
to look at the full version of the new law, a tab to learn more about the ALUDPA and who is a member of the Authority, the complaint process and other information that can be useful to help you learn about the Authority and its role as the “new sheriff in town” for underground damage prevention.
by Wallace Jones
Director, Gas Pipeline Safety Alabama Public Service Commission
New Sheriff in Town
6 • Alabama 811
2021, Issue 1