It is not often that municipal governments and utility companies are grouped together, but in the case of underground facilities both are owners of infrastructure. For municipalities, underground facilities generally are in the form of water pipes, sewer pipes, and storm drains but they are grouped together with gas lines, electric wires, and fiber optic cables as underground facilities. MML staff has been part of a two year work group to develop this legislation, MML supports the bill as introduced.
Existing law has provisions to protect all underground facilities during an excavation which involves the locating and marking of these facilities prior to any digging. SB 877 / HB 1330 add additional protections for underground facilities. in particular, new or replaced facilities would need to add a low cost device to aid in the locating of such facility. Also response times for emergency excavations will be lowered.