It's Call Before You Dig Day!

PEARL RIVER, NY — On National Call 811 Before You Dig Day, utilities across the country urge everyone from construction contractors to municipal excavators and landscapers to homeowners to Call 811 Before You Dig. Not just for big projects — we're talking even just planting a tree! And this is important: It doesn't cost anything!

That easy-to-remember, toll-free, one-stop number 811 is the nationwide One-Call Notification System’s phone number. Calling that number enables excavators to locate underground equipment that could be in the path of their work, and mark that equipment’s location to prevent damage. They'll come out and mark it for free.

This is way to go whether you're a customer of Orange & Rockland Utilities, Con Ed, or NYSEG. If you live or are working in their territory, call first.

Officials from O&R said their chief safety concern in all their natural gas operations is damage to the underground equipment.

Most of that damage comes from excavators who fail to request appropriate utility company ground markings to guide them safely past that equipment. Those markings --- paint on the ground or small color-coded flags --- show the location of gas mains and service lines and other underground facilities.

One toll-free call to the utility notification service at 811 can help to get an excavation project safely underway. The utility notification service contacts the local utility, and that company will mark the location of its underground electric and gas facilities at no charge. The 811 service also will notify other utilities (telephone, cable, sewer and water) to mark their facilities as well.

Contractors, excavators, landscapers and homeowners must call 811 at least two to 10 working days before the project is due to begin.

Section 765a of the New York State General Business Law Article 36, calls for a fine of up to $2,500 for the first excavator violation and, if the same excavator damages underground facilities a second time within the same 12 months, the fine can be as high as $10,000.

For customers in Rockland and Orange counties, If you see an active excavation site or digging project, but you don’t see flags or painted markings, please call O&R at 1-877-434-4100 and report the location. If you smell gas, immediately leave the area and call 911, O&R’s Gas Emergency Hotline at 1-800-533-LEAK (1-800-533-5325), or your local gas utility. You can report gas leaks anonymously. For more details about working safely around O&R’s underground and overhead equipment, see our Web site at www.oru.com. For more information about the 811 One-Call Notification System, visit the www.call811.com website.

For Westchester customers of Con Ed, call 811 before you dig. If a digging accident occurs, call 911 and 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633).

For customers of NYSEG, call 811 before you dig. If NYSEG underground facilities are damaged or disturbed, notify NYSEG at 1.800.572.1121 for natural gas or 1.800.572.1131 for electricity.

PHOTO: Doug Goddard, left, from the construction firm Ray S. Pantel, Inc., gets some guidance from O&R’s Steve Nostro, right, about mark out flags and paint that show the location of underground utility equipment at Route 303 and Erie St. in Blauvelt during a road improvement project there in 2015./ O&R