Nov. 15, 2007
PG-061851

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A Vancouver, Wash. construction company has paid a $15,000 penalty for repeatedly damaging natural gas pipelines in Clark County over a two-year period.

Under a settlement reached with state officials, the L. L. Lindberg Co. could end up paying an additional $30,000 if it violates the state law protecting pipelines and other underground utilities within the next 18 months.

Last March, the Office of the Attorney General served L. L. Lindberg with a complaint alleging the company failed to use reasonable care while digging and did not request that underground utilities be marked before starting to dig, as is required by state law. The lawsuit alleged that the construction company hit natural gas lines 11 times during a 13-month period from June 2, 2005 to July 24, 2006.

State law requires excavators, including homeowners, to dig only after all known underground utilities are identified with above ground markings. To accomplish this, excavators must contact the universal utility locate number two business days before beginning their project. Requesting a utility locate was made easier this year with the launch of the national three-digit phone number 8-1-1.

Under the consent decree filed with Clark County Superior Court this week, L. L. Lindberg agreed to the $15,000 payment now, and an additional $30,000 if it commits any new violations during the next 18 months. The company also agreed to comply with state laws requiring it to wait for utility lines to be located before digging, use reasonable care while digging and inform the utilities immediately if any service line is damaged.

In addition, the company will provide its employees with training in the law.

The legal action was initiated at the request of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), the agency responsible for monitoring the safe operation of 21,000 miles of natural gas and hazardous-liquid pipelines in the state.

The UTC’s pipeline safety program has been working with pipeline companies in the state to identify repeat offenders of the law, who risk the public’s safety by hitting and damaging underground gas pipelines. In 2006, six people were killed and 10 injured in the United States as a result of gas pipelines that were damaged through excavation. There were no such injuries or fatalities in Washington last year.