Be safe, not sorry--Call before you dig
 
Be safe, not sorry--call before you dig

On a sunny Saturday morning in August, a Spokane homeowner was building a fence around his yard when he struck and ruptured a half-inch natural-gas line that served his home.

In less than an hour, Washington Water Power Co., the local gas company, had stopped the leak, leaving the sheepish homeowner to explain to the fire department and local media how his home improvement project almost went up in flames.

The homeowner’s embarrassing and potentially fatal incident could have been avoided with one phone call, 1-800-424-5555. The toll-free number connects the caller to the Utilities Underground Location Center in Bellevue which routes the call to the closest regional center. An operartor at the center will notify the local utilities serving the caller’s location and in turn the utility companies will send someone out to mark the exact location of the underground utility lines around the dig site. The service is free and well worth the effort given the possible alternatives.

Building contractors and professional excavators already know state law requires a person to notify utilities before starting to dig. But few homeowners know about the law or about the potential hazard. Or they may think that a project as simple as digging post holes for a fence does not pose a problem. As the Spokane resident learned, a shovel tip struck with enough force can open a small gas line and can easily snap a telephone or water line.

1-800-424-5555