73 Pa. Stat. § 176
The following words and phrases when used in this act shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Abandoned" means no longer in service and physically disconnected from a line.
"Alleged violation" means an instance when a person by action or inaction fails to fulfill the obligations of this act.
"Business day" means any day except a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday prescribed by statute. A business day begins at 12:00:00 a.m. and ends at 11:59:59 p.m.
"Chairman" means the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
"Commission" means the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
"Committee" means the Damage Prevention Committee established under section 7.8.
"Common Ground Alliance best practices" means the damage prevention industry recommended standards issued by the Common Ground Alliance, a not-for-profit corporation created pursuant to the issuance of the United States Department of Transportation's Common Ground Task Force report in 1999.
"Complex project" means an excavation that involves more work than properly can be described in a single locate request or any project designated as such by the excavator or facility owner as a consequence of its complexity or its potential to cause significant disruption to lines or facilities and the public, including excavations that require scheduling locates over an extended time frame.
"Consumer Price Index" means the index of consumer prices developed and updated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor.
"Conventional oil and gas well" means a conventional oil and gas well as defined in section 2 of the act of June 23, 2016 ( P.L. 375, No.52), known as the "Pennsylvania Grade Crude Development Act."
"Demolition work" means the partial or complete destruction of a structure, by any means, served by or adjacent to a line or lines.
"Designer" means any architect, engineer or other person who or which prepares a drawing for a construction or other project which requires excavation or demolition work as herein defined.
"Emergency" means a sudden or unforeseen occurrence involving a clear and immediate danger to life, property and the environment, including, but not limited to, serious breaks or defects in a facility owner's lines.
"Excavation work" means the use of powered equipment or explosives in the movement of earth, rock or other material, and includes, but is not limited to, anchoring, augering, backfilling, blasting, boring, digging, ditching, drilling, driving-in, grading, plowing-in, pulling-in, ripping, scraping, trenching and tunneling. The term does not include soft excavation technology such as vacuum, high pressure air or water, tilling of soil for agricultural purposes to a depth of less than eighteen inches, performing minor routine maintenance up to a depth of less than eighteen inches measured from the top of the edge of the cartway or the top of the outer edge of an improved shoulder, in addition to the performance of incidental de minimis excavation associated with the routine maintenance and the removal of sediment buildup, within the right-of-way of public roads or work up to a depth of twenty-four inches beneath the existing surface within the right-of-way of a State highway, work performed by persons whose activities must comply with the requirements of and regulations promulgated under the act of May 31, 1945 ( P.L. 1198, No.418), known as the Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act, the act of April 27, 1966 (1st Sp.Sess., P.L. 31, No.1), known as The Bituminous Mine Subsidence and Land Conservation Act, or the act of September 24, 1968 ( P.L. 1040, No.318), known as the Coal Refuse Disposal Control Act, that relate to the protection of utility facilities or the direct operations on a well pad following construction of the well pad and that are necessary or operations incidental to the extraction of oil or natural gas.
"Excavator" means any person who or which performs excavation or demolition work for himself or for another person.
"Facility owner" means the public utility or agency, political subdivision, municipality, authority, rural electric cooperative or other person or entity who or which owns or operates a line. The term does not include the Department of Transportation within a State highway right-of-way. The term does not include any of the following:
"Federal pipeline safety laws" means the provisions of 49 U.S.C. Ch. 601 (relating to safety), including the regulations promulgated under 49 U.S.C. Ch. 601.
"Final design" means the engineering and construction drawings that are provided to a bidder or other person who is asked to initiate construction on the bid date or the date the project is set for construction in the absence of a bid.
"Fiscal year" means the fiscal year utilized by the commission.
"Horizontal directional drilling" means the use of horizontal boring devices that can be guided between a launch point and a reception point beneath the earth's surface.
"Injury" means a bodily harm to a person, who as a result of the bodily harm, immediately receives medical attention away from the scene of the incident.
"Lawful start date" means the scheduled start date as provided under section 1.1.
"Line" or "facility" means an underground conductor or underground pipe or structure used in providing electric or communication service, or an underground pipe used in carrying, gathering, transporting or providing natural or artificial gas, petroleum, propane, oil or petroleum and production product, sewage, water or other service to one or more transportation carriers, consumers or customers of such service and the appurtenances thereto, regardless of whether such line or structure is located on land owned by a person or public agency or whether it is located within an easement or right-of-way. The term shall include unexposed storm drainage and traffic loops that are not clearly visible. The term shall include unconventional oil and gas well production and gathering lines or facilities. The term shall not include stripper well lines unless the line or facility is a regulated onshore gathering line as defined in regulations promulgated after January 1, 2006, by the United States Department of Transportation pursuant to the Pipeline Safety Act of 1992 ( Public Law 102-508, 49 U.S.C. § 60101 et seq.), if the regulated gathering line is subject to the damage prevention program requirements of 49 CFR § 192.614.
"Locate request" means a communication between an excavator or designer and the One Call System in which a request for locating facilities is processed. Locate requests submitted by an excavator performing work within the right-of-way of any State highway, either under contract to the Department of Transportation or under authority of a permit issued by the Department of Transportation, shall include the number of the Department of Transportation contract or permit.
"Minor routine maintenance" means shaping of or adding dust palliative to unpaved roads, removal and application of patches to the surface or base of flexible base, rigid base or rigid surface roads by either manual or mechanized method to the extent of the existing exposed base material, crack and joint sealing, adding dust palliative to road shoulders, patching and cutting of shoulders and shoulder bases by either manual or mechanized methods to the extent of the existing exposed base, and cleaning of inlets and drainage pipes and ditches.
"One Call System" means the communication system established within this Commonwealth to provide a single nationwide toll-free telephone number or 811 number for excavators or designers or any other person covered by this act to call facility owners and notify them of their intent to perform excavation, demolition or similar work as defined by this act. The One Call System shall be incorporated and operated as a nonprofit corporation pursuant to 15 Pa.C.S. Pt. II Subpt. C (relating to nonprofit corporations).
"Operator" means any individual in physical control of powered equipment or explosives when being used to perform excavation or demolition work.
"Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation, political subdivision, a municipal authority, the Commonwealth and its agencies and instrumentalities, or any other entity.
"Powered equipment" means any equipment energized by an engine or motor and used in excavation or demolition work.
"Preconstruction meeting" means a scheduled event held by the excavator, designer, project owner and facility owner, or an agent of the excavator, designer, project owner and facility owner, prior to the commencement of excavation or demolition work in a complex project.
"Project owner" means any person who or which engages an excavator for construction or any other project which requires excavation or demolition work.
"Report of alleged violation" means a recorded account of an alleged violation.
"Stripper well" means a conventional oil and gas well with a maximum daily average production which does not exceed fifteen (15) barrels of oil and ninety thousand (90,000) cubic feet of natural gas during any twelve-month consecutive time period.
"Stripper well lines" means a production or gathering line or facility that has a nominal inside diameter of eight (8) inches or less, only carries oil or natural gas produced exclusively from one or more stripper wells and is not regulated under the Federal pipeline safety laws and subject to the pipeline damage prevention requirements in 49 C.F.R. § 192.614 (relating to damage prevention program) or 49 C.F.R. § 195.442 (relating to damage prevention program).
"Subsurface utility engineering" or "SUE" means those techniques set forth in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) most recently published standard CI/ASCE 38-02, or its successor document as determined by the One Call System.
"Tolerance zone" means the horizontal space within eighteen inches of the outside wall or edge of a line or facility.
"Traffic loop" means a device that detects metal objects such as cars and bicycles based on the change in inductance that they induce in the device.
"Unconventional formation" means a geological shale formation existing below the base of the Elk Sandstone or its geologic equivalent stratigraphic interval where oil or natural gas generally cannot be produced at economic flow rates or in economic volumes except by vertical or horizontal well bores stimulated by hydraulic fracture treatments or by using multilateral well bores or other techniques to expose more of the formation to the well bore.
"Unconventional oil and gas well" means a bore hole drilled or being drilled for the purpose of or to be used for the production of oil or natural gas from an unconventional formation.
"Well pad" means area, under the control of an oil or natural gas company, occupied by equipment or facilities necessary or required for the drilling, production or plugging of an oil or natural gas well.
"Work site" means the specific place denoted on the locate request where excavation or demolition work is being or is planned to be performed. A work site should be denoted as a clearly defined, bounded area, including relevant identifiable points of reference such as the specific address with a specific description as to the portion of the property, including descriptions such as front, back, left side, right side and direction such as N, S, E, W or variants. Where possible, the points should also reference, without limitation, the size and radius or circumference of the excavation, utility pad or pedestal numbers, utility pole numbers, landmarks, including trees, fountains, fences, railroads, highway and pipeline markers, and latitude and longitude.
73 P.S. § 176