SENATE, No. 1804

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED JANUARY 23, 1997

 

 

By Senators KYRILLOS and SINGER

 

 

An Act concerning underground facilities, amending P.L.1994, c.118.

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. Section 3 of P.L.1994, c.118 (C.48:2-75) is amended to read as follows:

    3. As used in this act:

    "Board" means the Board of Public Utilities;

    "Business day" means any day other than Saturday, Sunday, or a nationally or State recognized holiday;

    "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, including, but not limited to a break, leak, dent, gouge, groove, or other damage to the facility, its lines, or their coating or cathodic protection[.];

    "Emergency" means any condition constituting a clear and present danger to life, health or property caused by the escape of any material or substance transported by means of an underground facility or the interruption of a vital communication or public service that requires immediate action to prevent or mitigate loss or potential loss of the communication or public service, or any condition on or affecting a transportation right-of-way or transportation facility that creates a risk to the public of potential injury or property damage;

    "Excavate" or "excavating" or "excavation" or "demolition" means any operation in which earth, rock, or other material in the ground is moved, removed, or otherwise displaced by means of any tools, equipment, or explosive, and includes but is not limited to drilling, grading, boring, milling to a depth greater than six inches, trenching, tunneling, scraping, tree and root removal, cable or pipe plowing, fence post or pile driving, and wrecking, razing, rending, or removing any structure or mass material, but does not include routine residential property or right-of-way maintenance or landscaping activities or landscape irrigation activities performed with non-mechanized equipment, excavation within the flexible or rigid pavement box within the right-of-way, or the tilling of soil for agricultural purposes to a depth of 18 inches or less;

    "Excavator" means any person performing excavation or demolition;

    "Hand digging" means any excavation involving non-mechanized tools or equipment, including but not limited to digging with shovels, picks and manual post-hole diggers;

    "Landscape irrigation activities" means the construction, repair, maintenance, improvement and alteration of any portion of a landscape irrigation system, including required wiring within that system and connection to the required power supply and the installation and connection to a public or private water supply system under the terms and conditions of a contract;

    "Mechanized equipment" means equipment powered by a motor, engine, or hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical device, including but not limited to trenchers, bulldozers, power shovels, augers, backhoes, scrapers, drills, cable and pipe plows, and other equipment used for plowing-in cable or pipe, but does not include tools manipulated solely by human power;

    "One-Call Damage Prevention System" means the communication system established pursuant to section 4 of this act;

    "Operator" means a person owning or operating, or controlling the operation of, an underground facility, but shall not include a homeowner who owns only residential underground facilities, such as an underground lawn sprinkler system or an underground structure for a residential low-voltage lighting system;

    "Person" means any individual, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, State, county, municipality, public agency or authority, bi-state or interstate agency or authority, public utility, cooperation association, or joint stock association, and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee, or personal representative thereof;

    "Public entity" means any federal, State, county or municipal entity responsible for issuing road opening, building, blasting, demolition or excavation permits;

    "Site" means the specific place where excavation work is performed or to be performed and shall be identified by street address referenced to the nearest intersecting street and subdivision name, if applicable, as well as by lot and block number, if available and by kilometer or mile marker for railways;

    "State department or agency" means any department, public authority, public agency, public commission, or other political subdivision of the State, including any county, municipality or political subdivision thereof[.];

    "Underground facility" means any public or private personal property which is buried, placed below ground, or submerged on a right-of-way, easement, public street, other public place or private property and is being used or will be used for the conveyance of water, forced sewage, telecommunications, cable television, electricity, oil, petroleum products, gas, optical signals, or traffic control, or for the transportation of a hazardous liquid regulated pursuant to the "Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979" (49 U.S.C. app. § 2001 et seq.), but does not include storm drains or gravity sewers.

(cf: P.L.1994, c.118, s.3)

 

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill would amend the Underground Facility Protection Act, to add "landscape irrigation activities" as an activity excluded from the definition of "excavate" and propose a definition of "landscape irrigation activities." "Landscape activities" are currently excluded from the definition of "excavate." Under the bill, landscape irrigation activities performed with non-mechanized equipment would not be subject to the provisions of the Underground Facility Protection Act.

 

 

                             

Amends Underground Facility Protection Act to exclude certain landscape irrigation activities from definition of "excavation."