Page 9 - TN811 2023 Issue 1

Frequently Asked Questions
D Tennessee811
o you know that if you cause damage to an underground utility, you’re required by state law to call in a “Damage
Notice”? A Damage Notice is not a locate request, so it doesn’t prompt utilities to mark their lines and it does not count as notice of excavation. What it does is collect information from a caller about an excavation damage so that the information can be used to target and evaluate damage prevention efforts across the state. It has the added benefit of notifying member utilities
of the damage, which will almost always include the utility operator that experienced the damage. Excavators are also required to contact the utility directly in case they’re not a member
of the one-call or in case their system for receiving tickets is different from the system that needs to be triggered to initiate a repair response.
Damage Notices help close a feedback loop that was previously missing. Tennessee 811 is already notified before digging work begins and we already collect a lot of great information on what type of work is going on and where it’s occurring. What we don’t have good data for is how often the 811 process fails to protect a line because
a locate request was not submitted, reasonable care wasn’t used when working close to a line, or a line wasn’t located properly. If you’ve heard of the Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT), you may be wondering why it’s not able to provide that kind of data.
Tennessee 811 Call Center Stats
The short answer is that it’s a great tool when it’s used, but even though it’s required by law, less than a quarter of utilities in the state are registered to use the system, so in theory we could be collecting information on as little
as a quarter of the damages that are occurring.
Here are the basics: when an excavator damages an underground line, they’re required to call 811 to report a damage notice (we’re working on online entry of damage notices and will roll that
out as soon as possible). We collect information from the caller about the site, the nature of the damage, and
the root cause of the incident. Then
we send that information as a damage notice to member utilities, but it doesn’t stop there. We take the anonymous data (no company identifiers) and feed that data into DIRT to supplement
the damages that are reported there directly. Even better, if a utility calls
us to report a damage that they experienced, we fulfill their legal requirement to report that incident to DIRT. That means one less platform to forget how to use or lose your logins for!
Thanks in advance for calling in damage notices. Data from these notices is critical to our success and the success of damage prevention efforts across the state.
Want Kathy to answer your question in a future issue? Email kathy. quartermaine@tennessee811.com
New Members
2022 Q4 BrightSpeed
Buffalo Wastewater
Columbia Gulf Transmission - Caneridge
Jet Infrastructure
Incoming (2022) 2021: 1,033,777 2022: 1,065,688 Outgoing (2022) 2021: 5,465,267 2022: 5,584,669
Call Ratio (O/I)
2021: 5.29
2022: 5.24
Avg Daily Tickets (2022) 2021: 2,832
2022: 2,920
By Kathy Quartermaine, Public Awareness Coordinator
2023, Issue 1 Tennessee811 • 7
WHAT IS A DAMAGE NOTICE AND WHEN IS ONE REQUIRED?
Notice
DAMAGE