
Call before you dig. It’s the law!
If you’re planning any landscaping, gardening or other digging, add this to your chore list: Call before you dig. One call to 811 gives local utilities like the PUD the chance to identify where their underground services are buried so you can dig safely.
The Utility Notification Center is the one-call agency dedicated to safeguarding citizens and construction personnel who work around utilities, as well as safeguarding the underground infrastructure of pipes, mains and lines which bring utilities to your community.
Calling before beginning any excavation prevents damage to underground facilities, service interruptions bodily injury.
The Utility Notification Center is open 24 hours a day, every day, and accepts calls from contractors, homeowners, or anyone planning to dig in Washington. Calling before you dig ensures that any publicly owned underground facilities will be marked according to the APWA color code so that you can dig safely.
How does the service work?
Call 1–800-424‑5555, or 811, two working days before you plan to begin your excavation work. The service is free and they will notify the PUD and other utilities as well. Each utility will send someone out to mark their buried lines. Each year we receive more than 1,300 service location requests, county-wide. The locating service will ask a few simple questions:
- The location of the site where you plan to dig. A street address and specific directions help. So does marking the site with white spray paint; that way we know exactly where you will dig.
- The type of work you plan.
- The date you plan to begin.
If there are buried lines on the site, each utility will mark their services with spray paint (red for electric service, yellow for gas or oil, blue for water, green for sewer, and orange for telephone, telecommunications and cable TV).
Within two feet of the spray-painted marks, take special care and dig by hand.
If you do your homework by calling before you dig, you can proceed with confidence. You won’t endanger your life, and you won’t incur the costs of accidentally digging into buried services. And that can be a lot – up to triple damages, according to Washington law.