Safe Digging Part 4

Damage prevention is critical to all parties involved in ground disturbance activities; facility owner, client, contractors, sub-contractors, one-call organization, community etc. While it is so true to say that no responsible owner of buried facilities wants to have their facilities damaged. Likewise, no responsible member of the digging community wants to damage buried facilities. These are the common expectations from which a damage prevention process that is fair, reasonable, practicable, based on best practices and supported and endorsed by the Training Standards Committee has been developed.

Although the Alberta regulations are referenced here, each province and state has strict guidance in relation to ground disturbance. As a ground disturbance supervisor, you must ensure that current regulations for each area are researched for both content and intent. As such know and understand your roles and responsibilities for ground disturbance is crucial.

Various jurisdictions use different ways to ensure they protect underground facilities. Some location that is outlined by the one-call centre. Others will use industry recommended practice as a baseline for enforcement.

The following are the types of regulator we have in Alberta;
Provincial and Federal (OH&S), Provincial: AUC &ERCB, Federal: National Energy Board (NEB)
other include Inspector, safety and operators owner. Please note that the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) is an independent, quasi-judicial agency of the Government of Alberta that is responsible to ensure that the delivery of Alberta’s utility services takes place in a manner that is fair, responsible, and in the public interest.