Be careful what you dig for. Ohio now ready to fine anyone who breaks a pipeline or cuts a cable.
Water lines and other underground utility lines can be anywhere, under the street like this one in Pepper Pike, under the tree lawn, under a field or under your lawn. Call 811 before digging or now face big fines if you damage one. COLUMBUS -- Ohio lawmakers have added some teeth to the "Call before you dig!" directive that contractors, landscapers and homeowners sometimes forget to do.
Beginning in January, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio will impose fines -- up to $10,000 for repeat offenders -- who damage buried pipelines, power lines and fiber optic cables who have not called the Ohio Utilities Protection Service (OUPS) and break a pipeline or cable.
The OUPS number is 811. It's a free call. And you must call at least 48 hours before you dig. The location of underground cables and pipelines will be marked with tiny flags.
Here's the fine schedule:
First offense could land you in a training class, force you to pay a fine of up to $2,500 or a combination of the two.
The second offense could put persuade the PUCO to order more training, impose a fine of up to $5,000, or a combination.
Persistent "noncompliers" can expect fines of up to $10,000 for each incident they create.
The fines do not apply to homeowners, said a PUCO spokesman.
The Common Ground Alliance, an association of underground utility representatives estimated there were 349,000 incidents across the nation in 2014, the last year for which statistics are available.
An Ohio Utilities Protection Service spokeswoman could not be reached for an estimate of how many incidents occurred in Ohio in 2014.