Beyond the Rule of Thumb
Survival Tip 45
Scenario 1. It’s a cold winter day. Freezing rain and sleet cover the roadways in your community. In the late afternoon, you receive a report of an overturned tractor-trailer hauling 8,000 gallons of gasoline in a DOT-406 cargo tank. On arrival, you see that the tank appears to have received minor damage and is not leaking. However, you realize that to upright the vehicle, the product will first need to be transferred to another tank. As well-trained first responders, you know that to safely transfer a flammable liquid, such as gasoline, your safety officer will require bonding and grounding of the tanks to dissipate any static electricity generated during the transfer process. Members of the hazardous materials team prepare the bonding and grounding equipment and check for electrical continuity of all cables and attachments. You even check the resistance in the nearby highway median to be used as the grounding field. One of the team members steadies the four-foot ground rod in his hand while another member delivers an initial heavy blow with a sledgehammer. After repeated strikes with the hammer, all appears to be going well until….
Scenario 2. You respond to a report of a leaking aboveground storage tank containing 200,000 gallons of heating oil. The leak involves a pipe flange near the bottom of the tank, By y the time you arrive, several thousand gallons of oil have already entered the dike that surrounds the tank. With several inches of oil in the dike, the safety officer will not let anyone enter the area to attempt to stop or slow the leak. The dike is constructed of cement blocks, and several of the mortar joints are leaking, allowing oil to escape. The tank is on a small hill overlooking a set of railroad tracks, and the spilled oil is collecting at the base of the hill alongside the tracks. Knowing that you will not be able to stop the flow of oil from the damaged mortar joints, you develop a plan to contain the oil by using a backhoe to dig a 20-foot by 10-foot retention basin along the railroad right-of-way. The backhoe is brought to the scene and begins to dig. All appears to be going well until ….
In each of these situations, first responders had the right idea on how to manage the situation. However, they did not consider the potential for catastrophe associated with damage to underground utilities. These utilities include electricity, natural gas, and communications. Damage to underground utilities can obviously inflict serious injury or death from electrocution or explosions. However, you may also have to face potential criminal charges for violating state laws designed to protect underground utilities, civil charges for costs associated with repairs and disruption of service, and the embarrassment the hazardous materials team will experience when it is reported that the fire department created a bigger problem than the one to which they had originally responded. Keep in mind also that damage to some underground utilities may not be immediately evident; it could take some time to appear. Examples include a gouge in a metal high-pressure pipe that could fail at a later date or a tear in the outer sheath of an electric or communication cable that would allow moisture in the soil to corrode the wires and subsequently interfere with service delivery.
Unfortunately, many hazardous materials training programs fail to discuss procedures for protecting underground utilities when teaching strategies and tactics that involve disturbing the soil surface. When I asked some instructors why this information is not presented, they say that during emergencies, fire departments are exempt from laws that require notifying utility companies prior to digging. Although that is true in most circumstances, I am not convinced that we are exempt from getting our heads blown off when we hit a natural gas line with a backhoe or the person standing near a copper grounding rod is exempt from electrocution when the rod strikes a buried high-voltage line. Maybe these instructors live in a world vastly different from the one in which I worked for nearly 30 years. It has been my experience that people die from carelessness regardless of whether their actions were “legal.”
In the two real-world incidents discussed earlier, first responders averted disaster because they recognized potential sites for underground utilities (such as highway shoulders and railroad right-of-ways) and called to learn where these facilities were located in proximity to the incident site. They took the initiative to contact what is commonly referred to as the “one-call” notification center in their area.1
As the name implies, the “one-call” concept allows anyone who needs to dig to make one call regarding the location of the work. The call center then contacts representatives from companies with underground utilities in that area; these individuals are responsible for “marking” the location with spray paint or other means, such as small flags. The color of the marker identified the type of utility– red usually indicates electricity; yellow, gas or oil; blue, water lines; and orange, communication cables. Remember: The utility does not always lie directly beneath a marking–the exact location could vary by as much as 24 inches on either side. Also, markings provide no indication of the depth of the utility.
Quite often, utility companies outsource the responsibility for marking utilities to various independent contractors. In addition, local and state government agencies may be responsible for locating and marking their own utilities. Therefore, requests for the locations of underground utilities in any community could result in having more than one person respond to the scene.
An important reminder when dealing with one-call notification centers is that you need not worry about the 48-hour window normally allowed for marking underground utilities. Just make sure you let the operator know that your call is in response to an emergency situation. On hearing this, the one-call operator will immediately contact the locating services and have their representative call you at the scene. It is, therefore, essential that you provide a call-back number and keep that line open as much as possible.
Once the locator returns your call, you can provide specific details about your location and planned activities at the scene. In some instances, the utilities may be able to assure you that their utilities are nowhere near the affected area. If they are not certain, they will come to the scene to survey the site. Be sure to provide good directions (or Global Positioning System coordinates if you have them available), If law enforcement is at the scene directing traffic, let them know that you expect the utility employees so that these individuals don’t get detoured away from the site.
It is important that you know the identify of each utility in the affected area and the name of the locating company that will respond. Keep a checklist of locators as they contact you so that you know when all have been accounted for. Based on their assessment, you can then proceed as planned or implement a Plan B to avoid damage to underground utilities.
Knowing how to contact the one-call notification center in your area can be as easy as turning to the first few pages of almost any telephone book or by conducting an Internet search. Once you contact the center, you can learn the best way to reach the utility during an emergency to obtain the reliable information you need quickly. Keep in mind that the one-call notification center may not always contact local and state agencies to mark their utilities. You may instead need to contact your local or state public works departments to ensure that no utility in the area is overlooked. Examples often include cables that provide electric power for lighting overhead highway signs.
Representatives from the notification center can also acquaint you with the laws in your state applicable to preventing damage to underground utilities. As mentioned previously, you may discover that emergency excavations are often exempt from these laws. However, you may also learn that this exemption applies only when you exercise “reasonable precautions” to protect underground utilities. In other words, if you ignore obvious indicators of nearby underground utilities, such as a utility pole with a cable that runs along the pole from the cross arms to the ground or an aboveground device, such as a box containing communication cables or an electric transformer, a manhole cover, or warning signs, the exemption may not apply
Forward questions or comments on this topic to Steven De Lisi at HazMatSurvivalTip@comcast.net
Endnote
1. For additional information on the two incidents partially described in the opening paragraphs, see “Overturned Tanker Threatens Underground Utilities” and “A Program to Prevent Underground Utility Damage, Fire Engineering, March 2001.
Click here for more info on Steven De Lisi’s book, Hazardous Materials Incidents: Surviving the Initial Response.
Steven M. De Lisi recently retired from the fire service following a 27-year career that included serving as the deputy chief for the Virginia Air Guard Fire Rescue and a division chief for the Virginia Department of Fire Programs (VDFP). De Lisi is a hazardous materials specialist and as an adjunct instructor for VDFP, he continues to conduct hazardous materials Awareness and Operations-level training for fire suppression and EMS personnel. De Lisi began his career in hazardous materials response in 1982 as a member of the hazmat team with the Newport News (VA) Fire Department. Since then he has also served as a hazardous materials officer for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management; in that capacity, he provided on-scene assistance to first responders dealing with hazardous materials incidents in a region that included more than 20 local jurisdictions. De Lisi holds a master’s degree in public safety leadership and is the author of the textbook entitled, Hazardous Material Incidents: Surviving the Initial Response, published by PennWell.
Subjects: Hazardous materials response, firefighter hazmat training, utilities
