Digging deep into pockets
Bipartisan proposal would fine excavators who fail to call 811.
Responding to growing concerns over gas-pipeline safety, a bipartisan group of legislators is proposing a plan to create a new state commission to investigate and fine those responsible for damages to lines due to digging.
The proposal, which has the backing of Republican state Sen. Ray Scott of Grand Junction and Democratic state Sen. Kerry Donovan of Vail, would impose fines of up to $75,000 for violations of the state’s 811 call system. That system requires excavators to call 811 before they dig. Those calls generate alerts to owners of pipelines who must then identify for the excavator the location of piping and other underground infrastructure.
Industry officials, particularly those tied to telecom companies, beat back an earlier version of the plan that would have placed enforcement under the state’s Public Utilities Commission.
“The stakeholder discussion we got wasn’t just no. It was hell no,” said J.D. Maniscalco, chief executive of the 811 call program in Col-
orado. “They did not want the PUC in their business now.”
An effort to vest the Colorado attorney general with the power to levy the fines also foundered when lawyers in that office said state law does not give them such enforcement authority, Maniscalco said. Still, Scott, Donovan and Maniscalco believe they can overcome the hurdles and come up with a new program. They argue that the safety of the public is at stake and that changes are needed because some excavators and those who own underground facilities repeatedly put the public at risk by ignoring common-sense safety.
“For the majority of our stakeholders, with our current education efforts, we can turn them around,” Maniscalco said. “But there is the minority who repeatedly don’t do the right thing. All they will ever understand is a fine. We have to have those fines.”
Changes also are necessary to avoid a loss in federal grants the state receives for pipeline-safety programs, Maniscalco added. Federal regulators have warned Colorado that it must fix its pipeline-safety excavation program by 2020 or they will impose a 4 percent reduction in those federal grants. The federal officials want Colorado to create an enforcement authority that can investigate and fine violators. Officials with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in 2016 found Colorado’s pipeline excavation damage prevention laws inadequate, making Colorado one of 26 states to receive such a rating.
An April explosion that demolished a home in Firestone and killed two has pushed pipeline-safety issues in Colorado to the forefront. Investigators have linked that explosion to a severed natural gas pipeline that was connected to an active gas well. Scott and Donovan said the pipeline-safety overhaul is one of the top issues they plan to push in the upcoming legislative session. Although the plan is aimed at gas-line safety, the changes are far reaching and aimed at protecting all underground infrastructure at a time when development is booming in the state. The proposal also is supposed to protect fiber-optic cables that run 911 systems for the Western Slope as well as pipelines that provide water to homes across the Front Range.
Gas pipelines are getting much of the attention because they can become lethal if people don’t take care when earth gets moved. Records show that in 2015, nearly 1,300 gas pipelines in Colorado were damaged during excavation, a rate of nearly four times a day. Democratic state Sen. Matt Jones of Louisville is pushing a separate proposal to give local counties and municipalities control over where oil and gas operators can drill instead of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates the industry. Jones, who admitted he faces long odds, said he doesn’t think overhauling the 811 system does enough to protect the public.
“We should be able to count on our local governments to protect and take care of us,” said Jones, who is running to become a Boulder County commissioner. “I just want to give local governments the ability to do what they want to do with any activity.”
While Jones’ proposal will have difficulty getting support from Republicans, who hold a one-seat majority in the Senate, Scott said the overhaul he is backing is something Republicans can get behind. He added that he thinks the proposed changes to the 811 call system should quiet the clamor from the public for a statewide public map of gas pipelines.
Donovan, Scott and Maniscalco will hold a series of town hall meetings this month in Greeley, Golden, Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction to discuss their plan for the 811 call system. For their proposal to get enacted, the legislature would have to approve it and the governor would have to sign it into law.
“What I’m really proud of with this bill is that we really looked around the country for best practices, and we are bringing those back to roost in Colorado,” Donovan said.
Their plan would create a 12-member underground damage-prevention safety commission composed of local public officials, owners or operators of underground infrastructure and excavators. The commission would review complaints and impose penalties, which include remedial training, for violations. Fines would range from $250 for minor violations up to $75,000 for a fourth major violation within 12 months. The plan is modeled on a similar program in operation in the state of Washington.
“We’re not going to take the penalties into the general fund,” said Scott, who works as a consultant in construction and in the oil and gas field. “We want those put in a training and safety fund. We want to train contractors and utilities and engineers to do this stuff right. … We want to stop the bad actors from doing silly things.”
State law requires owners of underground piping and other infrastructure to give Maniscalco’s 811 call group details for mapping. That law also requires builders, developers and other excavators — even homeowners doing work beyond routine maintenance — to call 811 before they dig. Those calls trigger an alert to the owners of the underground infrastructure, who have two days to identify for the excavator any underground infrastructure.
The law also requires excavators to alert the 811 system and the pipeline owners anytime they damage a pipe.
Under the proposal Scott and Donovan are backing, the new commission could impose fines for those who violate those laws. The proposed overhaul also would require the system to trigger alerts to more entities that own pipelines that aren’t in the 811 call alert system, such as Denver Water. It also would make changes aimed at getting engineers more 811 data sooner as opposed to waiting when a project is under construction. In addition, the Colorado Department of Transportation, which currently isn’t required to participate in the 811 data mapping, would be required to do so.