It's Official: April Is National Safe Digging Month

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad met with representatives from Iowa One Call (IOC) and Common Ground Iowa (CGI) on Friday, April 7, 2017 at the State Capitol and officially signed the "April Is National Safe Digging Month" proclamation. Celebrating April as "National Safe Digging Month" is an important and effective way to educate Iowans about the importance of having their proposed excavation areas located and marked for underground facilities so they can avoid digging into a potentially hazardous, or critical (i.e.: expensive) underground gas or electric lines, communications cables, or water facilities. It is a requirement of Iowa law that anyone planning to engage in digging or excavation projects, small or large, must first notify Iowa One Call by 'clicking' online at www.iowaonecall.com or by dialing 811. This includes homeowners planning to work in their yards, farmers planning to work their fields, and professional contractors planning projects that will entail any type of digging.   The Iowa Attorney General enforces the "Iowa One Call law" (Iowa Code chapter 480) and is authorized to seek civil penalties against any violators, which includes failure to notify Iowa One Call prior to digging. The civil penalties may range from as much as ten thousand dollars for each violation for each day the violation continues, up to a maximum of five hundred thousand dollars.  - 30 - About Iowa One Call     Iowa One Call is the state of Iowa's free underground damage prevention notification system that provides users with a single source/notification process to coordinate the locating and marking of underground facilities located near or within any proposed area of excavation. The notification system is reached by dialing 8-1-1, or electronically by going online at www.iowaonecall.com Iowa One Call representatives handle more than 400,000 notices and coordinate more than two million locate requests annually.  The service provided by Iowa One Call is free of charge, including the locating and marking process (which is handled by the underground facility operators). The cost is paid in full by underground facility operators who are required to become members of the Iowa One Call system. Iowa One Call is neither a utility nor a locating service and it does not own facilities nor does it locate underground facilities. To learn more about Iowa One Call, go to http://www.iowaonecall.com. About Common Ground Iowa Common Ground Iowa (CGI), a Regional Partner of the national organization Common Ground Alliance (CGA), is a member-driven non-profit organization.  CGI works with all stakeholders to produce stronger, more effective results through partnership, collaboration, and the pursuit of common goals in damage prevention. The purpose of the CGI is to prevent damage to underground infrastructure through education to foster a shared sense of responsibility for the protection of underground facilities. To accomplish this goal, CGI utilizes Common Ground Alliance's Best Practices for advancing underground excavation safety in Iowa. To learn more about CGI, visit commongroundiowa.com