AT&T has been fined $60,000 for failing to mark underground utility lines on 60 occasions within Kansas’ two-day deadline, according to a state regulatory commission.
The Kansas Corporation Commission issued the civil penalty April 29 for not providing timely locate marks in 2024 between April 30 and May 30. State law requires utility owners to locate lines within two days of being notified of an excavation, unless the parties agree to a different timeline.
“These actions delayed the work schedules of excavators and violated statutes,” the KCC said.
KCC issued a $1,000 fine for each of the 60 violations.
“The company responded, admitting that buried lines were not located before excavation began and attributing delays to a lack of capacity to complete the request or falling behind on projects,” according to KCC.
Past Violations
During an April 29 KCC meeting in which the penalty was ordered, commissioners were concerned about the large number of violations and that there might be an ongoing problem with the company. KCC staff noted in its recommendations to the commission that it has issued nine other Notices of Probable Noncompliance to AT&T for 57 violations in the past two years.
“Commission Chair Andrew French encouraged KCC staff to propose additional and higher enforcement actions as needed in the future, including a potential general investigation to look at the issues more holistically and explore a proactive approach,” KCC said.
The noncompliance falls under the Kansas Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act. KCC staff identified 81 nonresponse tickets by excavators against AT&T, and it issued a Notice of Probable Noncompliance on June 6, 2024.
AT&T responded to 80 of the alleged nonresponse tickets, saying it did not contest 60 of the nonresponses. The company did contest 20 of the proposed violations, arguing that it provided the requested locates within the deadline, or it determined there were no buried utilities and cleared the excavation. The KCC staff then recommended fining AT&T for the 60 violations it did not contest.
Failure to Locate Can Prove Fatal
Laws affecting digging around buried utility lines differ from state to state, including on how to deal with utility owner nonresponses.
The nonprofit Common Ground Alliance recommends states adopt its best practices, which include: “The facility owner/operator and the excavator partner together to ensure that facilities are marked in an acceptable time frame to allow for underground facility protection.”
It recommends that if an owner/operator can’t meet the request in the allotted time that it and the excavator agree on a mutually agreeable date, and the excavator renotify the state’s 811 center.
“Once positive response is received from all operators, or if the appropriate waiting period as defined by state/provincial law has lapsed, the excavator may proceed with excavation, provided the excavator exercises due care in all endeavors,” CGA recommends.
Failure to mark underground lines – especially gas and power lines – can lead to catastrophic consequences. Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board reported that a deadly explosion April 9 that killed a 5-year-old boy in Lexington, Missouri, occurred after a subcontractor’s drill hit a gas line that the utility locator failed to mark. Missouri’s state Senate responded by passing a bill based on the Common Ground Alliance’s best practices.
Other States Issue Fines
Other states have also fined utilities for failure to comply with their underground utility laws:
- In June 2024, the state of Iowa reached a settlement with MidAmerican Energy Co., Mediacom Communications Corp. and CenturyLink for each to pay $50,000 after it received complaints from 2018 to 2023 about “untimely and inaccurate locate performed by USIC” on behalf of the three companies.
- In January 2020, the state of Michigan reached a settlement with Consumer Energy Co. to pay $545,000 for violating the MISS DIG 811 law for failing to timely mark lines in more than 20,000 instances.
- In October 2018, the state of Indiana reached a settlement with gas company Vectren for $736,000. The state began investigating the company after a gas explosion destroyed a home and damaged several others in Indianapolis. The contractor had called 811, but the natural gas line it hit was not marked. An investigation by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission found more than 300 failures to locate timely in 2016 and 2017 by Vectren.
