Statute 66-1801
This act shall be known and may be cited as the
Statute 66-1802
Definitions. As used in this act
(a) "Damage" means any impact or contact with an underground
facility, its appurtenances or its protective coating, or any weakening of the
support for the facility or protective housing which requires repair.
(b) "Emergency" means any condition constituting a clear and
present danger to life, health or property, or a customer service outage.
(c) "Excavation" means any operation in which earth, rock or
other material below the surface is moved or otherwise displaced by any means,
except tilling the soil for normal agricultural purposes, or railroad or road
and ditch maintenance that does not change the existing railroad grade, road
grade and/or ditch flowline, or operations related to exploration and
production of crude oil or natural gas, or both.
(d) "Excavator" means any person who engages directly in
excavation activities within the state of
(1) Uses such dwelling as a primary residence; and
(2) excavates on the premises of such dwelling.
(e) "Facility" means any underground line, system or structure
used for gathering, storing, conveying, transmitting or distributing gas,
electricity, communication, crude oil, refined or processed petroleum,
petroleum products or hazardous liquids; facility shall not include, any
production petroleum lead lines, salt water disposal lines or injection lines,
which are not located on platted land or inside the corporate limits of any
city.
(f) "Locatable facility" means facilities for which the
tolerance zone can be determined by the operator using generally accepted
practices such as as-built construction drawings, system maps, probes, locator
devices or any other type of proven technology for locating.
(g) "Marking" means the use of stakes, paint, flags or other
clearly identifiable materials to show the field location of underground
facilities, in accordance with the rules and regulations promulgated by the
state corporation commission in the administration and enforcement of this act.
(h) "Municipality" means any city, county, municipal
corporation, public district or public authority located in whole or in part
within this state which provides firefighting, law enforcement, ambulance,
emergency medical or other emergency services.
(i) "Notification center" means the statewide communication
system operated by an organization which has as one of its purposes to receive
and record notification of planned excavation in the state from excavators and
to disseminate such notification of planned excavation to operators who are
members and participants.
(j) "Operator" means any person who owns or operates an
underground facility, except for any person who is the owner of real property
wherein is located underground facilities for the purpose of furnishing
services or materials only to such person or occupants of such property.
(k) "Preengineered project" means a public project or a
project which is approved by a public agency wherein the public agency responsible
for the project, as part of its engineering and contract procedures, holds a
meeting prior to the commencement of any construction work on such project in
which all persons, determined by the public agency to have underground
facilities located within the construction area of the project, are invited to
attend and given an opportunity to verify or inform the public agency of the
location of their underground facilities, if any, within the construction area
and where the location of all known and underground facilities are duly located
or noted on the engineering drawing as specifications for the project.
(l) "Permitted project" means a project where a permit for the
work to be performed must be issued by a city, county, state or federal agency
and, as a prerequisite to receiving such permit, the applicant must locate all
underground facilities in the area of the work and in the vicinity of the
excavation and notify each owner of such underground facilities.
(m) "Person" means any individual, partnership, corporation,
association, franchise holder, state, city, county or any governmental
subdivision or instrumentality of a state and its employees, agents or legal
representatives.
(n) "Production petroleum lead line" means an underground
facility used for production, gathering or processing on the lease or unit, or
for delivery of hydrocarbon gas and/or liquids to an associated tank battery,
separator or sales facility. Production petroleum lead lines shall include
underground lines associated with lease fuel and saltwater disposal and
injection.
(o) "Platted land" means a tract or parcel of land which has
been subdivided into lots of less than five acres for the purpose of building
developments, including housing developments, and for which a surveyor's plat
has been filed of record in the office of the register of deeds in the county
where the land is located.
(p) "Tolerance zone" means the area within 24 inches of the
outside dimensions in all horizontal directions of an underground facility.
(q) "Update" means an additional request from the excavator to
extend the time period of the request for intent to excavate beyond the 15
calendar day duration of the request.
(r) "Whitelining" means the act of marking by the excavator
the route or boundary of the proposed excavation site with white paint, white
stakes or white flags.
(s) "Working day" means every day, Monday through Friday
beginning at 12:01 a.m., except for the following officially recognized
holidays: New Year's day, Memorial day, Independence
day, Labor day, Thanksgiving day, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Statute 66-1804
Notice of intent of excavation
(a) Except in the case of an emergency, an excavator shall serve notice
of intent of excavation at least two full working days, but not more than 15
calendar days before the scheduled excavation start date, on each operator
having underground facilities located in the proposed area of excavation.
(b) The notice of intent to excavate or any subsequent updates shall be
valid for 15 calendar days after the excavation start date and such notice
shall only describe an area in which the proposed excavation reasonably can be
completed within the 15 calendar days.
(c) No person shall make repeated requests for remarking unless the
request is due to circumstances not reasonably within the control of such
person.
(d) The notice of intent of excavation shall contain the name, address
and telephone number of the person filing the notice of intent, the name of the
excavator, the date the excavation activity is to commence and the type of
excavation being planned. The notice shall also contain the specific location
of the excavation. (Dropped ? section reference)
(e) The person filing the notice of intent to excavate shall, at the
request of the operator, whiteline the proposed excavation site when the
description of the excavation location cannot be described with sufficient
detail to enable the operator to ascertain the location of the proposed
excavation.
(f) The provisions of this section shall not apply to a preengineered
project or a permitted project, except that the excavators shall be required to
give notification in accordance with this section prior to starting such
project.
Statute 66-1805
Notification center
(a) This act recognizes the establishment of a single notification
center for the state of
(b) Notification, as required by K.S.A. 2001 Supp. 66-1804,
and amendments thereto, to operators shall be given by notifying the
notification center by telephone at the toll free number or by other
communication methods approved by the notification center. The content of such
notification shall be as required by K.S.A. 2001 Supp. 66-1804,
and amendments thereto.
(c) Each operator who has an underground facility within the state shall
be afforded the opportunity to become a member of the notification center on
the same terms as the original members.
(d) A suitable record shall be maintained by the notification center to
document the receipt of notices from excavators as required by this act.
Statute 66-1806
Identification of location of facilities; duties of operator; liability for
damages
(a) Within two working days, beginning on the later of the first working
day after the excavator has filed notice of intent to excavate or the first day
after the excavator has whitelined the excavation site, an operator served with
notice, unless otherwise agreed between the parties, shall inform the excavator
of the tolerance zone of the underground facilities of the operator in the area
of the planned excavation by marking, flagging or other acceptable method.
(b) If the operator has no underground facilities in the area of the
proposed excavation, such operator, before the excavation start date, shall
notify the excavator that it has no facilities in the area of proposed
excavation by telephone, facsimile, marking the area all clear or by other
technology that may be developed for such purposes.
(c) If the excavator notifies the notification center, within two
working days after the initial identification of the tolerance zone by the
operator, that the identifiers have been improperly removed or altered, the
operator shall make a reasonable effort to reidentify the tolerance zone within
one working day after the operator receives actual notice from the notification
center.
(d) If the operator notifies the excavator that it has no underground
facilities in the area of the planned excavation, fails to respond or
improperly marks the tolerance zone for the facilities, the excavator may
proceed and shall not be liable to the operator for any direct or indirect
damages resulting from contact with the operator's facilities, except that
nothing in this act shall be construed to hold any excavator harmless from
liability to the operator in those cases of gross negligence or willful and
wanton conduct.
(e) For economic damages in any civil court of this state, failure of an
operator to inform the excavator within two working days of the tolerance zone
of the underground facilities of the operator in the manner required by
subsection (a) of K.S.A. 2001 Supp. 66- 1806, and amendments thereto, shall not
give rise to a cause of action on the part of the excavator against an
operator, except that nothing in this act shall be construed to hold any
operator harmless from liability in those cases of inaccurate marking of the
tolerance zone, gross negligence or willful and wanton conduct. Such failure
may subject an operator to civil penalties as determined by the state
corporation commission.
(f) Any person claiming that an operator has failed to inform the
excavator within two working days of the tolerance zone of the underground
facilities of the operator shall file a complaint with the state corporation
commission requesting enforcement of subsection (a) within one year of becoming
aware of the violation.
(g) All facilities installed by an operator after January 1, 2003, shall
be locatable.
Statute 66-1807
Emergency excavations
(a) In the case of an emergency which involves danger to life, health or
property or which requires immediate correction in order to continue the
operation of an industrial plant or to assure the continuity of public utility
service, excavation, maintenance or repairs may be made without using
explosives, if notice and advice thereof, whether in writing or otherwise are
given to the operator or notification center as soon as reasonably possible.
(b) If an operator receives a request to locate its facilities for an
emergency condition, such operator shall make a reasonable effort to identify
the location of its facility within two hours of receiving notification or
before excavation is scheduled to begin, whichever is later.
(c) Any person providing a misrepresentation of an emergency excavation
may be subject to the penalties set out in K.S.A. 2001 Supp. 66-1812, and
amendments thereto.
Statute 66-1808
Application of other laws
This act shall not be construed to authorize, affect or impair local
ordinances, resolutions or other provisions of law concerning excavating or
tunneling in a public street or highway or private or public easement.
History: L. 1993, ch. 217, S. 8; July 1.
Statute 66-1809
Excavator's duty to exercise reasonable care
(a) Upon receiving information as provided in K.S.A. 2001 Supp. 68-1806,
and amendments thereto, an excavator shall exercise such reasonable care as may
be necessary for the protection of any underground facility in and near the
construction area when working in close proximity to any such underground
facility.
(b) An excavator using a trenchless excavation technique shall meet
minimum operating guidelines as prescribed in rules and regulations developed
and adopted by the state corporation commission in support of this act.
Statute 66-1810
Contact with or damage to facility; procedure
When any contact with or damage to any underground facility occurs,
the operator shall be informed immediately by the excavator. Upon receiving
such notice, the operator immediately shall dispatch personnel to the location
to provide necessary temporary or permanent repair of the damage. If the
protective covering of an electrical line is penetrated or dangerous gases or
fluids are escaping from a broken line, the excavator immediately shall inform
emergency personnel of the municipality in which such electrical short or
broken line is located and take any other action as may be reasonably necessary
to protect persons and property and to minimize hazards until arrival of the
operator's personnel or emergency first responders.
Statute 66-1811
Effect of violation of act, liability for damages; application of other laws
(a) In a civil action in a court of this state when it is shown by
competent evidence that personal injury, death or other damages, including
damage to any underground facilities, occurred as a result of a violation of
this act, there shall be a rebuttable presumption of negligence on the part of the
violator.
(b) In no event shall the excavator be responsible for any damage to
underground facilities if such damage was caused by the failure of the operator
to correctly and properly mark the location of the tolerance zone of the
damaged facility.
(c) Nothing in this act is intended to limit or modify the provisions
of: (1) K.S.A. 60?258a, and amendments thereto; or (2)
the national electrical safety code, which would otherwise be applicable.
Statute 66-1812
Violation of act, civil penalties and injunctive relief
Any person to whom this act applies, who violates any of the provisions
contained in this act, shall be subject to civil penalties and injunctive
relief as set out in K.S.A. 66-1,151, and amendments thereto, and any remedies
established in rules and regulations promulgated by the state corporation
commission in support of this act.
Statute 66-1813
Administration and enforcement by corporation commission
This act shall be administered and enforced by the
state corporation commission of the state of