KUB and other utilities are joining the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) to use August 11 [8-11-12] to remind customers and contractors about the importance of calling 811 before digging to have underground utilities marked for free.
Tennessee State Law requires anyone about to engage in digging, excavation, moving of earth, demolition, or any type of activity that could damage underground utility lines, to notify Tennessee One Call (811) of their intent to dig no less than three business days before the work is scheduled to begin. Tennessee One Call will then notify KUB and other member utilities about the proposed work and the utilities' facilities within the requested excavation site will be marked with paint or flags so customers will know where to dig safely during excavation.
"According to the CGA, an underground utility line is damaged during digging projects once every three minutes nationwide," said Bill Elmore, KUB Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "One free call to 811, however, can help customers avoid possible injury, repair costs, fines, and inconvenient service outages in their homes or neighborhoods."
A call must be placed to 811 before everydigging project, from simple landscaping projects, like planting trees or shrubs, to building a deck or installing a rural mailbox. There are 165,000 underground utilities damaged annually across the nation, and one out of every three incidents is the result of not calling 811. Don't become part of that statistic – make sure to always call 811!
The depth of utility lines can vary for a number of reasons, such as erosion, previous digging projects, and uneven surfaces. Utility lines need to be properly marked because even when digging only a few inches deep, the risk of striking an underground utility line still exists.
For more information on Call 811, visit
www.call811.com or visit KUB's website at
www.kub.org and click on the Safety & Outages tab. To report damage to a KUB utility line, call 865-524-2911 immediatley.
KUB is a municipal utility serving Knox and parts of seven adjacent counties and provides electric, gas, water, and wastewater services to more than 439,000 customers.