State of Colorado

Home rule cities by the Colorado constitution are cities that have the full right of self-government in local and municipal matters. The larger home rule cities include Denver, Aurora, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Grand Junction. Home Rule cities can create their own safety commissions and can enforce the one-call law and imposed penalties for failure to comply with the law. 

Yes. Colorado 811 will provide an annual report, along with real-time data, to support the Safety Commission's efforts regarding underground excavation and safety. 

Any person can provide feedback to the Safety Commission. 

Yes, the Colorado Underground Damage Prevention Safety Commission will have the responsibility to enforce the provisions of the law related to safe practices. The Safety Commission can impose penalties for failure to comply with the law. Home Rule cities may create a safety commission which also have the power to impose penalties for failure to comply with the law. Facility owners and operators and excavators may bring civil actions for damage claims separate from the actions of the Safety Commission.  

Only Home Rule cities are exempt from complying with the Safety Commission requirements but they must create their own safety commissions. 

CO811 is not in a position to offer an opinion regarding whether or not the State of Colorado can enforce penalties against a municipality under the new law. The Safety Commission will establish regulations that address this issue in cooperation with the Colorado Attorney General.  

There does not appear to be a way for an accused violator to dispute whether “costs of investigation and trial, including reasonable attorney’s fees” are warranted in an enforcement action under CRS 9-1.5-104.2. Please confirm whether the intent of this legislation is to give the Safety Commission the right to seek enforcement costs/fees with NO opportunity for rebuttal by the accused violator. 

Please defer to the Underground Damage Prevention Safety Commission. 

The Safety Commission is a state commission having jurisdiction to address underground facility safety issues throughout the State of Colorado with the exception of certain home rule cities. 

Excavators are not exempt from the overview and jurisdiction of the Colorado Safety Commission. Complaints can be submitted to the commission with respect to excavators, facility owners and firms that provide locate services. 

Certain municipalities in Colorado are designated as “home rule cities”. Home rule cities must act to create their own Safety Commissions and enforcement procedures. If a home rule city does not act to create its own commission then the State Commission will have the responsibility to enforce the laws related to underground safety. 

Yes, there are several modifications in the new law regarding exemptions they include: farmers/ranchers and governmental agencies relative to road grading. Please note, there is no exemption for gravity fed systems. Although, these exemptions exist it is extremely dangerous to dig without first notifying Colorado 811 for the location of underground facilities. 

Gravity fed systems are now defined to clarify what information has to be provided in the event there is a request for a locate related to subsurface utility engineering. The law defining this exemption is located at section 9-1.5-102 (3.4).

All underground facility owner/operators are responsible for the location of service laterals in the public right-of-way. 

Facility owners/operators are encouraged to provide the excavator this information through the Colorado 811’s Positive Response System. 

Yes, an excavator requiring existing marked underground facilities to be exposed may list a single secondary excavator on it’s excavation notice to Colorado 811. 

A new positive response code will not be necessary as the facility owner will still be required to locate the area of excavation, if applicable. However, the facility owner and excavator must communicate to ensure that the visual crossing of marked underground facilities has been exercised.

Colorado 811 is not subject to the Colorado Open Records Act. 

It is our understanding that a home rule entity electing to establish their own safety commission they will need to comply with the same rules as the State Safety Commission. Please defer to the Safety Commission once established. 

All new facilities installed on or after January 1, 2019 must be electronically locatable. For example, what about new developments in progress? All infrastructure must be locatable in the future. Are pipe replacements considered “new development” and subject to electronically locatable requirements? In our interpretation, yes. What about underground irrigation infrastructure located on agricultural land or shared between neighboring farms/ranches? Yes, anything within public access areas (public right-of-way). 

Yes, a positive response re-notification is automatically regenerated each day when the facility has not posted a response. However, excavators will still need to execute an excavator re-notification when necessary. 

Even if it was not previously locatable According to the law, any “new” facility installed after August 8th, 2018 must be electronically locatable. 

The positive response re-notifications will automatically be sent to members that have NOT posted a response code. If a response code is posted and no pictures, sketches, or maps are attached it WILL generate a re-notification. CO811 will not support posting response via phone, members are required to upload supporting documentation along with posting a response which can not be done over the phone.

The positive response re-notifications will automatically be sent to members that have NOT posted a response code. If a response code is posted and no pictures, sketches, or maps are attached it WILL generate a re-notification. 

Yes, you can contact either the member relations department or the damage prevention liaison in your area by visiting Colorado811.org.

The current 150ft buffer will be reduced to 100ft buffer on single address tickets when parcel boundaries are available. Facility Owner/Operator Members require a minimum buffer of 30ft on the registered underground facilities. 

Yes, minimum 30ft buffer. 

The Safety Commission has established industry marking standards.

Please visit https://ops.colorado.gov/UDPSafetyCommission to review all best practices and standards. 

Secondary Excavator 

Secondary excavators may be listed on locate requests for potholing purposes only. 

Canceled Tickets 

After listening to our facility owners and operators, the Board of Directors approved the request from management to no longer charge a ticket fee for canceled outgoing transmissions. This change will take effect on January 1, 2019.