Docket Number: UG-061606
August 14, 2007

Puyallup construction firm penalized for repeatedly hitting underground utility lines

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A Puyallup, Wash. construction company will pay a $15,000 penalty for repeatedly damaging Puget Sound Energy’s natural gas pipelines and underground electricity wires between December 2004 and May 2006.
Under a settlement reached with state officials this week, the company could pay an additional $30,000 for any additional violations of the state law which protect pipelines and other underground utilities.
The Office of the Attorney General filed a complaint against Talerico Construction, Inc., at the request of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) last December alleging that the company damaged gas and electric lines 10 times during the preceding two-year period. The UTC is the agency in charge of performing safety inspections on the state’s 21,000 miles of natural gas and hazardous-liquid pipelines.
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 Thurston County Superior Court, Talerico will pay $15,000 immediately, and an additional $30,000 if it commits any new violations in the next two years. The company also agreed to comply with the 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 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.
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