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ONE-CALL STATEWIDE UNDERGROUND FACILITY NOTIFICATION STUDY COMMITTEE

MINUTES

December 15, 1995
First and Only Meeting

MEMBERS PRESENT

MEETING IN BRIEF

Minutes prepared by Mike Kuehn, Legal Counsel
Organizational staffing by Mark Johnson, Senior Legal Counsel

  1. Procedural Business.
  2. 2. Iowa One Call, Underground Plant Location Service, Inc.
  3. Iowa Attorney General's Office.
  4. Iowa Utilities Association.
  5. Utilities Division, Department of Commerce.
  6. Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission.
  7. Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives.
  8. Iowa Telephone Association.
  9. Iowa Petroleum Council.
  10. Iowa Rural Water Association.
  11. Additional Comments.
  12. Committee Discussion.
  13. Written Materials Filed with the Legislative Service Bureau.

COMMITTEE BUSINESS

1. PROCEDURAL BUSINESS

Call to Order. The only meeting of the One-Call Statewide Underground Facility Notification Study Committee was called to order by Temporary Co-chairperson Senator Black at 10:05 a.m., Friday, December 15, 1995, in Room 22, State Capitol, Des Moines, Iowa.

Co-chairpersons Elected and Rules Adopted. Upon a motion by a member of the Committee, Senator Black and Representative Van Fossen were elected permanent Co-chairpersons of the Committee. The Committee proceeded to adopt rules to govern the operation of the Committee, a copy of which is on file with the Legislative Service Bureau.

2. Iowa One Call, Underground Plant Location Service, Inc.

Mr. Terry Fox, President, Mr. Bob Hendricks, Mr. Dave Palmer, and Mr. Gary Bruns, from Iowa One Call and Underground Plant Location Service, Inc., made presentations to the Committee.
Background. Underground Plant Location Service, Inc. is located in Davenport and is operated by Asplundh Communications. The notification center in Davenport operates on a continuous basis, year-round. In 1995 it is estimated that the center will handle approximately 238,000 incoming calls and make over 1 million notifications to underground facility operators.
Upgrade. The center has recently gone through a computer upgrade and is in the process of implementing a new mapping system to improve the ability of the center to give more accurate information regarding the location of underground facilities. Also, a call management system has been installed to help monitor the flow of calls through the system.
Education. A variety of advertising and other informational sources are utilized by Iowa One Call to inform contractors and the general public about the one call system. A series of contractor meetings is being organized to provide contractors and others with information regarding Iowa One Call and its operations.

3. Iowa Attorney General's Office.

Mr. David Sheridan, Assistant Attorney General and Director, Environmental and Agricultural Law Division, made a presentation to the Committee.
Enforcement of Cost-sharing Provisions. Chapter 480 authorizes civil penalties for persons who violate provisions of the chapter. In October 1995, the Environmental and Agricultural Law Division began investigating how to enforce the provisions of chapter 480 using a $10,000 federal grant. The Division is in the process of establishing a database containing the approximately 460 entities who are currently not participating in one call cost sharing.
Nonparticipants. Currently, most of the nonparticipants in the one call program are municipalities. None of the current nonparticipants involve natural gas or other hazardous material pipelines.

4. Iowa Utilities Association.

Mr. John Lewis, President of the Iowa Utilities Association, made a presentation to the Committee.
Retain System in Current Form. The Association believes that it is imperative for all underground facility operators and all excavators to participate in the one call program to make the program most effective and that exempting any operator or excavator would be counter to the public interest. The Association believes that the basic concept of chapter 480 is working well and that it should be retained in its present form.

5. Utilities Division, Department of Commerce.

Mr. Curt Stamp, Legislative Liaison for the Division, made a presentation to the Committee on behalf of the Iowa Utilities Board.
Retain Current System. The Board supports the current one call program. The program helps increase safety for contractors involved in excavation, and the public. The Board believes that all underground facility operators should continue to be required to participate. Exemption of some facility operators could jeopardize Iowa's federal pipeline safety grant of between $120,000 and $130,000 annually.

6. Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission.

Mr. Miles Arman, Director of Outside Plant Division, the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), made a presentation to the Committee.
Supports Current Program. The ICN has over 3,000 miles of buried fiber optic cable throughout Iowa and wants to protect it. Providing excavators with the location of buried cable is the best way to minimize damage to the cable. The ICN has had 12 interruptions due to cable damage. Half of these could have been avoided had the excavator utilized the one call program. The ICN supports continued operation of the current one call program.

7. Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives.

Ms. Dawn Vance, Director, Government Relations, Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives (IAEC), addressed the Committee.
Some Improvement Needed. The IAEC supports requiring excavators to provide precise information regarding the location of their excavation to Iowa One Call. Lack of accurate location information from excavators is a common problem and increases costs to the cooperatives due to the additional marking required. The IAEC believes that Iowa One Call should do more educating of contractors on how to specifically locate a site. The IAEC is also concerned with calls made to cooperatives by Iowa One Call for digging locations where the cooperatives have no underground facilities. Responding to these calls can become expensive and time consuming.

8. Iowa Telephone Association.

Mr. Todd Schulz, State Director of Government Relations, Iowa Telephone Association, made a presentation to the Committee.
Membership Should Be Required. The Iowa Telephone Association agreed to become part of the one call system on the grounds that everybody should belong to the system, both underground facility owners and excavators. The Association believes that the better the one call system works for utilities, the better it will work to protect the public.

9. Iowa Petroleum Council.

Mr. Jason Huso, Government and Public Affairs Director, Williams Pipeline Co., and several individuals representing members of the Iowa Petroleum Council (IPC), made a presentation to the Committee.
Concerns. Mr. Huso stated that an issue statement from the IPC will be forthcoming. The IPC members are concerned that the implementation of the new mapping system by Iowa One Call be done in the most efficient manner possible given that damage to pipelines from excavation is the leading cause of pipeline accidents, property damage, and injury to excavators.
Changes Needed. The current system lacks a fail-safe notification system and needs better oversight and enforcement mechanisms and more flexible operational procedures. The IPC would like to see a technical advisory committee established to address the more complex issues regarding the operation of the one call system.

10. Iowa Rural Water Association.

Mr. Jim La Plant, President of the Iowa Rural Water Association (IRWA) and Manager of the Central Iowa Rural Water Association, and Mr. Randy Van Dyke, Manager of the Clay County Rural Water District, presented the position of the IRWA to the Committee.
Background. The IRWA represents 20 rural water systems in 45 counties. The IRWA joined the one call system and shortly thereafter saw a big increase in costs due to requests for underground facility locations through the one call system.
Mandatory Participation. The IRWA does not believe that mandatory participation is necessary to protect public safety, given that no significant public safety problems have arisen with approximately 460 nonparticipants in the current system. Also, the IRWA believes that the current system is biased in favor of the contractors to the detriment of rural utilities.
Restore Direct Communication. Prior to the implementation of the one call system, contractors wishing to do excavation had to call each underground facility operator directly. This direct communication resulted in significantly fewer erroneous site location trips and was considerably less of a hassle to the utilities. The current system should be changed to restore the requirement that the contractor call the utility in rural areas.

11. Additional Comments.

Mr. Walt Kelly, consultant on pipeline issues, commented that the Committee must remember the following overriding principles:
a. Every excavator should be required to use the one call system with no exceptions.
b. Every facility operator should be required to participate.
c. Enforcement should be simple and swift and the fines imposed under chapter 480 should be reduced to a more reasonable level.
d. Public education should be increased.

12. Committee Discussion.

The Committee briefly discussed several issues raised by the presentations but did not adopt any specific recommendations. The Committee discussed the importance of providing information to contractors regarding underground facilities while not overburdening the facility operators with needless calls for location information. The Committee also discussed the need for all parties involved in the one call system to communicate better and to try and reach a consensus on changes to the system on their own.

13. Written materials filed with the Legislative Service Bureau.

OTHER INFORMATION FOR THIS COMMITTEE:

| Charge | Members | Staff | Final Report |

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