As used in the Oklahoma Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Act: 1. "Certified project" means a project where the public agency responsible for the public project, in consultation with the statewide one-call notification center, as part of its procedure, certifies that the project right-of-way is free and clear of underground facilities or wherein the public agency responsible for such project, as part of its procedure, notifies all persons determined by the public agency to have underground facilities located within the construction right-of-way and certifies that all known underground facilities are duly located or noted on the engineering drawings for the project; 2. "Damage" means any impact upon or removal of support from an underground facility as a result of explosion, excavation or demolition which according to the operating practices of the operator of the underground facilities would necessitate the repair thereof; 3. "Demolish" means to wreck, raze, render, move or remove a structure by means of any equipment or explosive; 4. "Demolition" means the act or operation of demolishing a structure; 5. "Excavate" means to dig, compress or remove earth, rock or other materials in or on the ground by use of mechanized equipment or blasting, including, but not necessarily limited to, augering, boring, backfilling, drilling, grading, pile driving, plowing in, pulling in, trenching, tunneling and plowing; provided, however, that neither: a. the moving of earth by tools manipulated only by human or animal power, except in a private or public easement or right-of-way, b. the moving of earth by tools manipulated only by human power for burying communication lines of a communications provider in a private or public easement or right-of-way when depth is not greater than twelve (12) inches and within twelve (12) inches of a communications provider terminal, c. any form of cultivation for agricultural purposes, nor any augering, dozing by noncommercial dozer operators or digging for postholes, farm ponds, land clearing or other normal agricultural purposes, d. routine maintenance, e. work by a public agency or its contractors on a preengineered project, f. work on a certified project, g. work on a permitted project, h. the opening of a grave in a cemetery, i. a solid waste disposal site which is a preengineered project, j. any individual excavating on his or her own property and who is not in the excavating business for hire, except in a private or public easement or right-of- way, nor k. any grading or maintenance of county roads that does not change either the existing road grade or ditch flow line, shall be deemed excavation; 6. "Excavation" means the act or operation of excavating; 7. "Excavator" means a person or public agency that intends to excavate or demolish within this state; 8. "Notification center" means the statewide center currently known as the Oklahoma One-Call System, Inc., which has as one of its purposes to receive notification of planned excavation and demolition in a specified area from excavators, and to disseminate such notification of planned excavation or demolition to operators who are members and participants; 9. "Operator" shall mean and include any person or public agency owning or operating underground facilities; 10. "Permitted project" means a project where a permit for the work to be performed must be issued by a state or federal agency and, as a prerequisite to receiving such permit, the applicant must locate all underground facilities in the area of the work and in the vicinity of any blasting and notify each owner of such underground facilities; 11. "Person" includes any individual, partnership, corporation, association, cooperative, trust or other entity, including a person engaged as a contractor by a public agency, but not including a public agency; 12. "Preengineered project" means a public project wherein the public agency responsible for such project, as part of its engineering and contract procedures, holds a meeting prior to the commencement of any construction work on such project in which all persons, determined by the public agency, in consultation with the statewide one-call notification center, to have underground facilities located within the construction area of the project are invited to attend and given an opportunity to verify or inform the public agency of the location of their underground facilities, if any, within the construction area and where the location of all known underground facilities are duly located or noted on the engineering drawing and specifications for the project; 13. "Public agency" means the state, or any board, commission, or agency of the state; 14. "Routine maintenance" means the grading of roads and barrow or drainage ditches, the removal and replacement of pavement, including excavation relating thereto and the installation and maintenance of drainage and bridge facilities, signs, guardrails, and electrical and communications facilities in or on the public rights-of-way by a public agency; 15. "Underground facility" means any underground line, cable, facility, system and appurtenances thereto, for producing, storing, conveying, transmitting or distributing communication (including voice, video, or data information), electricity, power, light, heat, intrastate and interstate gas pipelines, as described in 49 CFR Part 192.1, intrastate and interstate hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide pipelines, as described in 49 CFR Part 195.1, water (including storm water), steam, sewage and other commodities and any oil and gas pipeline located in a private or public easement or right-of-way; 16. "Design" or "survey" means a notice to facility operators to provide underground facility information during the design or engineering phase of a project to mitigate potential impact to existing underground facilities; 17. "Watch and protect" means an operator or its designated representative is present to observe an excavation within ten (10) feet of the operator's marking of its existing underground facility; 18. "Pre-excavation meeting request" means a notice to underground facility operators to participate in scheduled meetings for the purpose of planning large projects and coordinate resources accordingly; and 19. "Large projects" are those excavation projects that involve one of the following: a. exceeds distances defined in paragraph 5 of subsection D of Section 142.6 of this title, or b. estimated duration is more than ninety (90) days. Added by Laws 1981, c. 94, § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 1982. Amended by Laws 1995, c. 344, § 27, eff. Nov. 1, 1995; Laws 2002, c. 412, § 1, eff. July 1, 2002; Laws 2003, c. 362, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2003; Laws 2004, c. 427, § 1, emerg. eff. June 4, 2004; Laws 2017, c. 192, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2017; Laws 2018, c. 136, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2018; Laws 2019, c. 148, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2019; Laws 2020, c. 65, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2020; Laws 2023, c. 211, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2023; Laws 2024, c. 118, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2024; Laws 2025, c. 242, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2025.
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