The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Bar hole" means a hole made in the soil or pavement with a hand-operated bar for the specific purpose of testing the subsurface atmosphere with a combustible gas indicator.

(2) "Blind boring" means engaging in directional underground boring without potholing the underground facility, relying on surface markings only to approximate the location of underground utilities in three dimensions.

(3) "Business day" means any day other than Saturday, Sunday, or a legal local, state, or federal holiday.

(4) "Commission" means the utilities and transportation commission.

(5) "Damage" includes the substantial weakening of structural or lateral support of an underground facility, penetration, impairment, or destruction of any underground protective coating, housing, or other protective device, or the severance, partial or complete, of any underground facility to the extent that the project owner or the affected facility operator determines that repairs are required.

(6) "Design locating" means locating for planning purposes. "Design locating" does not include locating for excavation purposes.

(7) "Emergency" means any condition constituting a clear and present danger to life, health, or property, or a customer service outage due to an unplanned utility outage that requires immediate action where an excavator or facility operator has a crew on-site or en route.

(8) "End user" means any utility customer or consumer of utility services or commodities provided by a facility operator.

(9) "Equipment operator" means an individual conducting an excavation.

(10) "Excavation" and "excavate" means any operation, including the installation of signs, in which earth, rock, or other material on or below the ground is moved or otherwise displaced by any means.

(11) "Excavation confirmation code" means a code or ticket issued by a one-number locator service for the site where an excavation is planned. The code must be accompanied by the date and time it was issued and the work-to-begin date on the notice as provided in RCW 19.122.030(2). The excavation confirmation code is not valid until the work-to-begin date.

(12) "Excavator" means any person who engages directly in excavation.

(13) "Facility operator" means any person who owns an underground facility or is in the business of supplying any utility service or commodity for compensation. "Facility operator" does not include a utility customer who owns a service lateral that terminates at a facility operator's main utility line.

(14) "Force majeure" means: Natural disasters, including fire, flood, earthquake, windstorm, avalanche, mudslide, and other similar events; acts of war or civil unrest when an emergency has been declared by appropriate governmental officials; acts of civil or military authority; embargoes; epidemics; terrorist acts; riots; insurrections; explosions; and nuclear accidents.

(15) "Gas" means natural gas, flammable gas, or toxic or corrosive gas.

(16) "General contractor" has the same meaning as defined in RCW 18.27.010.

(17) "Hard surface" means an area covered with asphalt, concrete, interlocking brick or block solid stone, wood, or any similar impervious or nonporous material on the surface of the ground.

(18) "Hazardous liquid" means:

(a) Petroleum, petroleum products, or anhydrous ammonia as those terms are defined in 49 C.F.R. Part 195 as in effect on March 1, 1998;

(b) Carbon dioxide; and

(c) Other substances designated as hazardous by the secretary of transportation and incorporated by reference by the commission by rule.

(19) "Identified but unlocatable underground facility" means an underground facility which has been identified but cannot be located with reasonable accuracy.

(20) "Large project" means a project that exceeds seven hundred linear feet.

(21) "Locatable underground facility" means an underground facility which can be marked with reasonable accuracy.

(22) "Marking" means the use of stakes, paint, or other clearly identifiable materials to show the field location of underground facilities, in accordance with the current color code standard of the American public works association. Markings shall include identification letters indicating the specific type, best known width, and identification of the operator of the underground facility. Locate marks are not required to indicate the depth of the underground facility given the potential change of topography over time.

(23) "Notice" or "notify" means contact in person or by telephone or other electronic method, and, with respect to contact of a one-number locator service, also results in the receipt of an excavation confirmation code.

(24) "One-number locator service" means a service through which a person can notify facility operators and request marking of underground facilities and includes the web-based platform required under RCW 19.122.027(1).

(25) "Person" means an individual, partnership, franchise holder, association, corporation, the state, a city, a county, a town, or any subdivision or instrumentality of the state, including any unit of local government, and its employees, agents, or legal representatives.

(26) "Physical exposure" means processes, such as potholing or daylighting.

(27) "Pipeline" or "pipeline system" means all or parts of a pipeline facility through which hazardous liquid or gas moves in transportation, including, but not limited to, line pipe, valves, and other appurtenances connected to line pipe, pumping units, fabricated assemblies associated with pumping or compressor units, metering and delivery stations and fabricated assemblies therein, and breakout tanks. "Pipeline" or "pipeline system" does not include process or transfer pipelines.

(28) "Pipeline company" means a person or entity constructing, owning, or operating a pipeline for transporting hazardous liquid or gas. "Pipeline company" does not include:

(a) Distribution systems owned and operated under franchise for the sale, delivery, or distribution of natural gas at retail; or

(b) Excavation contractors or other contractors that contract with a pipeline company.

(29) "Positive response" means a notification from the owner or operator of the underground facility, or the owner's or operator's authorized locating contractor, to the one-number locator service confirming that the facility owner, operator, or contracted locator has completed marking or provided location information regarding unlocatable facilities in response to a notice.

(30) "Potholing" means an excavation process that involves making a series of small test holes to accurately locate underground lines. Potholing is also known as daylighting.

(31) "Reasonable accuracy" means location within twenty-four inches of the outside dimensions of both sides of an underground facility.

(32) "Safe and careful work methods" means methods of excavation, including potholing, hand digging when practical, vacuum excavation methods, pneumatic hand tools, or other technical methods that may be developed.

(33) "Service lateral" means an underground water, stormwater, or sewer facility located in a public right-of-way or utility easement that connects an end user's building or property to a facility operator's underground facility, and terminates beyond the public right-of-way or utility easement.

(34) "Transfer pipeline" means a buried or aboveground pipeline used to carry hazardous liquid between a tank vessel or transmission pipeline and the first valve inside secondary containment at a facility, provided that any discharge on the facility side of the first valve will not directly impact waters of the state. "Transfer pipeline" includes valves and other appurtenances connected to the pipeline, pumping units, and fabricated assemblies associated with pumping units. "Transfer pipeline" does not include process pipelines, pipelines carrying ballast or bilge water, transmission pipelines, or tank vessel or storage tanks.

(35) "Transmission pipeline" means a pipeline that transports hazardous liquid or gas within a storage field, or transports hazardous liquid or gas from an interstate pipeline or storage facility to a distribution main or a large volume hazardous liquid or gas user, or operates at a hoop stress of twenty percent or more of the specified minimum yield strength.

(36) "Underground facility" means any item buried or placed below ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, sewage, electronic, telephonic or telegraphic communications, cablevision, electric energy, petroleum products, gas, gaseous vapors, hazardous liquids, or other substances and including but not limited to pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, attachments, and those parts of poles or anchors that are below ground. This definition does not include pipelines as defined in subsection (27) of this section, but does include distribution systems owned and operated under franchise for the sale, delivery, or distribution of natural gas at retail.

(37) "Unlocatable underground facility" means, subject to the provisions of RCW 19.122.030, an underground facility that cannot be marked with reasonable accuracy using available information to designate the location of an underground facility. "Unlocatable underground facility" includes, but is not limited to, service laterals, storm drains, and nonconductive and nonmetallic underground facilities that do not contain trace wires.

(38) "Utility easement" means a right held by a facility operator to install, maintain, and access an underground facility or pipeline.

(39) "White lining" means the use of any white paint, flags, stakes, whiskers, or other locally accepted method that is distinguishable from the surrounding area.

(40) "Work-to-begin date" means an identified date not less than two full business days and not more than 10 full business days, not including Saturdays, Sundays, [or] legal local, state, or federal holidays, from the date notice is given to a one-number locator service.

Reviser's note: The definitions in this section have been alphabetized pursuant to RCW 1.08.015(2)(k).

Report—Effective date—2011 c 263: See notes following RCW 19.122.010.

Intent—Findings—Conflict with federal requirements—Short title—Effective date—2000 c 191: See RCW 81.88.005 and 81.88.900 through 81.88.902.