H. B. 2346
(By Delegates Amores and Staton)
[Introduced January 11, 2006
; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §24C-1-3
of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to underground facility safety
generally and including public and privately owned water
utilities in the one-call system.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §24C-1-3
of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. ONE-CALL SYSTEM.
§24C-1-3. Duties and responsibilities of operators of underground
facilities; failure of operator to comply.
(a) Each operator of an underground facility in this state
except any privately owned public water utility regulated by the
public service commission, any state agency, any municipality or
county, or any municipal or county agency, shall be a member of a
one-call system for the area in which the underground facility is located. Privately owned public water utilities regulated by the
public service commission, state agencies, municipalities and
counties and municipal and county agencies may be voluntary members
of such a one-call system.
(b) Each member shall provide the following information to the
one-call system on forms developed and provided for that purpose by
the one-call system:
(1) The name of the member;
(2) The geographic location of the member's underground
facilities as prescribed by the one-call system; and
(3) The member's office address and telephone number to which
inquiries may be directed as to the locations of the operator's
underground facilities.
(c) Each member shall revise in writing the information
required by subsection (b) of this section as soon as reasonably
practicable, but not to exceed one hundred eighty days, after any
change.
(d) Within forty-eight hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and
legal federal or state holidays, after receipt of a notification by
the one-call system from an excavator of a specific area where
excavation or demolition will be performed, the operator of
underground facilities shall:
(1) Respond to such notification by providing to the excavator
the approximate location, within two feet horizontally from the outside walls of such facilities, and type of underground
facilities at the site; and
(2) Use the color code prescribed in section six of this
article when providing temporary marking of the approximate
location of underground facilities.
(e) Failure of an operator who is required to be a member to
comply with the provisions of this article may not prevent the
excavator from proceeding but shall bar the operator from recovery
of any costs associated with damage to its underground facilities
resulting from such failure, except for damage caused by the
willful or intentional act of the excavator.
(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (e) of this
section, such a member is not barred from recovery under subsection
(e) for failure to comply with subdivision (1), subsection (d) of
this section, but shall have his or her right to recover, if any,
determined by common law, if the operator responded to one-call
notification in a timely manner, but was unable to accurately
locate lines because such lines were nonmetallic and had no
locating wire or other marker.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to include publicly and
privately owned water utilities in the one-call safety response
system.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.