Mo. Rev. Stat. § 319.015

Current with changes from the 2024 Legislative Session

Section 319.015 - Definitions

For the purposes of sections 319.010 to 319.050, the following terms mean:

(1)"Approximate location", a strip of land not wider than the width of the underground facility plus two feet on either side thereof. In situations where reinforced concrete, multiplicity of adjacent facilities or other unusual specified conditions interfere with location attempts, the owner or operator shall designate to the best of his or her ability an approximate location of greater width;

(2)"Design request", a request from any person for facility location information for design purposes only;

(3)"Emergency", a sudden, unexpected occurrence, presenting a clear and imminent danger demanding immediate action to prevent or mitigate loss or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. "Unexpected occurrence" includes, but is not limited to, thunderstorms, high winds, ice or snow storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, or other soil or geologic movements, riots, accidents, water or wastewater pipe breaks, vandalism, or sabotage;

(4)"Excavation", any operation in which earth, rock or other material in or on the ground is moved, removed or otherwise displaced by means of any tools, equipment or explosives and includes, without limitation, backfilling, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, pulling material from a ditch but not including routine road maintenance, drilling, well-drilling, augering, boring, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing, plowing-in, pulling-in, ripping, driving, and demolition of structures, except that, the use of mechanized tools and equipment to break and remove pavement and masonry down only to the depth of such pavement or masonry on roads dedicated to the public use for vehicular traffic, the tilling of soil for agricultural purposes when such excavation does not exceed sixteen inches in depth, the installation of marking flags and stakes and the use of pressurized air to disintegrate and suction to remove earth, rock, or other materials for the location of underground facilities shall not be deemed excavation. Backfilling or moving earth on the ground in connection with other excavation operations at the same site shall not be deemed separate instances of excavation. For railroads regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration, "excavation" shall not include any excavating done by a railroad when such excavating is done entirely on land that the railroad owns or on which the railroad operates, or in the event of an emergency, excavating done by a railroad on adjacent land;

(5)"Excavator", any person making one or more excavations who is required to make notices of excavation under the requirements of sections 319.010 to 319.050;

(6)"Locate status", the underground facility owner's designation of the status of the locate request to the notification center which then makes that information available to the person making the locate request through electronic or other means;

(7)"Marking", the use of paint, flags, stakes, or other clearly identifiable materials to show the field location of underground facilities, or the area of proposed excavation, in accordance with the marking standards for underground facilities as designated by the Common Ground Alliance Best Practices Version 10.0 except that "approximate location" shall comply with the requirements as set forth in subdivision (1) of this section;

(8)"Notification center", a statewide organization operating twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year on a not-for-profit basis, supported by a majority of the underground facility owners in the state of Missouri;

(9)"Notification center participant", an underground facility owner who is a member and participant in the notification center;

(10)"Permitted project", a project for which a permit for the work to be performed is required to be issued by a local, state or federal agency and, as a prerequisite to receiving such permit, the applicant is required to notify all underground facility owners in the area of the work for purposes of identifying the location of existing underground facilities;

(11)"Person", any individual, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, cooperative, municipality, political subdivision, governmental unit, department or agency and shall include a notification center and any trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof;

(12)"Pipeline facility" includes all parts of a facility through which a hazardous liquid or gas moves in transportation including, but not limited to, pipe, valves and other appurtenances connected to pipe, pumping units, fabricated assemblies associated with pumping units, metering and delivery stations and fabricated assemblies therein, and breakout tanks;

(13)"State plane coordinates", a system of locating a point on a flat plane developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and utilized by state agencies, local governments, and other persons to designate the site of a construction project;

(14)"Trenchless excavation", horizontal excavation parallel to the surface of the earth which does not use trenching or vertical digging as the primary means of excavation, including but not limited to directional boring, tunneling, or augering;

(15)"Underground facility", any item of personal property which shall be buried or placed below ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, storm drainage, sewage, telecommunications service, cable television service, electricity, oil, gas, hazardous liquids or other substances, and shall include but not be limited to pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, vaults, lines, wires, manholes, attachments, or appurtenances, and those portions of pylons or other supports below ground that are within any public or private street, road or alley, right-of-way dedicated to the public use or utility easement of record, or prescriptive easement. If gas distribution lines or electric lines, telecommunications facilities, cable television facilities, water service lines, water system, storm drainage or sewer system lines, other than those used for vehicular traffic control, lighting of streets and highways and communications for emergency response, are located on private property and are owned solely by the owner or owners of such private property, such lines or facilities receiving service shall not be considered underground facilities for purposes of this chapter, except at locations where they cross or lie within an easement or right-of-way dedicated to public use or owned by a person other than the owner of the private property. Water and sanitary sewer lines providing service to private property that are owned solely by the owner of such property shall not be considered underground facilities at any location. A structure that transports only storm water drainage under roadways, driveways, or railways shall not be considered an underground facility;

(16)"Underground facility owner", any person who owns or operates underground facilities;

(17)"Working day", every day, except Saturday, Sunday or a legally declared state or federal holiday.

§ 319.015, RSMo

Amended by 2014 Mo. Laws, HB 1867,s A, eff. 1/1/2015.

L. 1976 S.B. 583 § 2, A.L. 1991 S.B. 214 & 264, A.L. 2001 H.B. 425, A.L. 2008H.B. 1779
Effective 1-01-09