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Alabama’s Underground Damage Prevention legislation has been enacted since 1994. Over the years there have been amendments to strengthen and improve the damage prevention program in our state. We will focus on some of the key terms and sections to ensure a thorough understanding of underground damage prevention as outlined in Alabama state law.
An element that was identified in one of the revisions to the law was the need to be able to collect data to analyze for the purpose of evaluation of the Alabama Damage Prevention program. Under §37-15-9 (c) the law states “If an event damages any pipe, cable or its protective covering, or other underground facility, or there is a significant near miss that could have resulted in damage, the operator receiving the notice shall file a report with the “One-Call Notification System”. Reports must be submitted annually to the System, no later than March 31 for the prior calendar year, or more frequently at the option and sole discretion of the operator. Each report must describe, if known, the cause, nature, and location of the damage.
The “One-Call Notification System” shall establish and maintain a process to facilitate submission of reports by operators or persons excavating.”
This is not the same requirement for excavators to report a damage at the time of occurrence but instead a way to collect damage/near miss data from the underground facility owners. Alabama 811 has built out various options
to allow facility owners to report. Reporting can be done by the following:
• Alabama 811 Virtual DIRT link which feeds into the CGA DIRT database
• Alabama Underground Facility Damage Reporting Tool Form which is convenient for individual reports being submitted
• Bulk Upload feature which can
be used by downloading an Excel spreadsheet to maintain data throughout the year that includes all the data required and submitting it as an attachment to build into the Alabama 811 database
Additional information on damage reporting can be found at https://al811. com/resources/#damage.
Legislative Corner
2023, Issue 4
Alabama 811
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