Utility lines are buried in cities and towns, in the country, along roads, and sometimes far away from the beaten paths in PRECorp’s territory.

Even when you inspect the ground carefully, these buried facilities seldom give any clue as to their location. Because of this, there might be an unwanted surprise waiting for people doing excavations. Remember whether you are adding a room to your house, building a road, digging a trench, digging a post hole or doing anything else that requires digging, you run the risk of hitting a buried power line, fuel line or water line.

You could kill or injure not only yourself, but bystanders and nearby property owners.

You should call 1-800-849-2476 at least two business days before you intend to dig and request the location of all underground facilities in the area of the construction or excavation. Be prepared with information about the scheduled time, location, and nature of your activity and the name of any contractor involved in the project.

This isn’t just for big construction jobs. A man repairing a fence post in his garden severed his telephone line but had not called for a locate. He paid for the costly repair.

The owners of the underground facilities near the proposed excavation or construction activity will visit the site free of charge, and mark the location of their lines as necessary with color-coded paint. Wyoming law requires underground facility owners to respond in two business days or less.

After the locate you may proceed with the excavation. But remember if you know there are facilities in the area of your dig, you may need to take special care not to damage any lines or pipes and this may sometimes require hand digging as a precaution.

Ignoring the line locations, or refusing the call before digging, could make the digger responsible for death, injury, multiple lawsuits and financial liability.

The Federal Environmental Protection Agency could hold you personally responsible for environmental cleanup efforts with expenses running into the millions of dollars.

If your project is not an emergency call 1-800-849-2476.

If the project is an emergency and cannot wait 48-hours for a locate, call 1-800-442-3630.