Colorado § 9-1.5-102 - Definitions.

§ 9-1.5-102. Definitions.

As used in this article 1.5, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "ASCE 38" means the standard for defining the quality of an underground facility location as defined in the current edition of the American Society of Civil Engineers' "Standard Guideline for the Collection and Depiction of Existing Subsurface Utility Data (CI/ASCE 38-02)" or an analogous successor standard as determined by the safety commission.

(1.5) "Damage" includes the penetration or destruction of any protective coating, housing, or other protective device of an underground facility, the denting or partial or complete severance of an underground facility, or the rendering of any underground facility inaccessible.

(2) "Emergency situations" includes ruptures and leakage of pipelines, explosions, fires, and similar instances where immediate action is necessary to prevent loss of life or significant damage to property, including, without limitation, underground facilities, and advance notice of proposed excavation is impracticable under the circumstances.

(3) "Excavation" means any operation in which earth is moved or removed by means of any tools, equipment, or explosives and includes augering, backfilling, boring, ditching, drilling, grading, plowing-in, pulling-in, ripping, scraping, trenching, hydro excavating, postholing, and tunneling. "Excavation" does not include:

(a) Routine maintenance on existing planted landscapes; or

(b) An excavation by a rancher or a farmer, as defined in section 42-20-108.5, occurring on a ranch or farm when the excavation involves:

(I) Any form of existing agricultural activity that is routine for that ranch or farm;

(II) Land clearing if the activity does not involve deep ripping or deep root removal of trees or shrubs; or

(III) Routine maintenance of:

(A) An existing irrigation facility if the facility has been subjected to maintenance in the previous twenty-four months; or

(B) Existing fence lines.

(3.4) "Gravity-fed system" means any underground facility that is not pressurized and that utilizes gravity as the only means to transport its contents. These systems include sanitary sewer lines, storm sewer lines, and open-air irrigation ditches.

(3.7) "Licensed professional engineer" means a professional engineer as defined in section 12-120-202 (7).

(4) "Notification association" or "association" means the statewide notification association of owners and operators of underground facilities created in section 9-1.5-105.

(5) (a) "Operator" or "owner" means any person, including public utilities, municipal corporations, political subdivisions, or other persons having the right to bury underground facilities in or near a public road, street, alley, right-of-way, or utility easement.

(b) "Operator" or "owner" does not include any railroad.

(6) "Person" means any individual acting on his or her own behalf, sole proprietor, partnership, association, corporation, or joint venture; the state, any political subdivision of the state, or any instrumentality or agency of either; or the legal representative of any of them.

(6.5) "Routine maintenance" means a regular activity that happens at least once per year on an existing planted landscape if earth is not disturbed at a depth of more than twelve inches by nonmechanical means or four inches by mechanical means and if the activities are not intended to permanently lessen the ground cover or lower the existing ground contours. Mechanical equipment used for routine maintenance tasks shall be defined as aerators, hand-held rototillers, soil injection needles, lawn edgers, overseeders, and hand tools.

(6.7) "Subsurface utility engineering notification" means a notice to the notification association that a project is being designed by a licensed professional engineer and that the project will include the investigation and depiction of existing underground facilities that meet or exceed the ASCE 38 standard.

(6.8) "Subsurface utility engineering-required project" means a project that meets all of the following conditions:

(a) The project involves a construction contract with a public entity, as that term is defined in section 24-91-102;

(b) The project involves primarily horizontal construction and does not involve primarily the construction of buildings;

(c) (I) The project:

(A) Has an anticipated excavation footprint that exceeds two feet in depth and that is a contiguous one thousand square feet; or

(B) Involves utility boring.

(II) For purposes of this subsection (6.8)(c), the term "two feet in depth" does not include rotomilling, and the contiguous one thousand square feet does not include fencing and signing projects.

(d) The project requires the design services of a licensed professional engineer.

(6.9) "Underground damage prevention safety commission" or "safety commission" means the enforcement authority established in section 9-1.5-104.2.

(7) "Underground facility" means any item of personal property which is buried or placed below ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water or sewage, electronic, telephonic, or telegraphic communications or cable television, electric energy, or oil, gas, or other substances. "Item of personal property", as used in this subsection (7), includes, but is not limited to, pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, and attachments thereto.

Source: L. 81: Entire article added, p. 520, § 1, effective October 1. L. 93: Entire article amended, p. 498, § 1, effective September 1. L. 2000: (3) and (6) amended, p. 685, § 1, effective May 23. L. 2009: (2) and (3) amended and (6.5) added, (HB 09-1092), ch. 38, p. 151, § 1, effective August 5. L. 2018: IP, (1), and (3) amended and (1.5), (3.4), (3.7), and (6.7) to (6.9) added, (SB 18-167), ch. 256, p. 1561, § 1, effective August 8. L. 2019: (3.7) amended, (HB 19-1172), ch. 136, p. 1650, § 27, effective October 1.

ANNOTATION

Law reviews. For article, "The Current Law of Underground Utility Location in Colorado", see 23 Colo. Law. 2545 (1994).

The state's activities in replacing a signpost amounted to an "excavation" within the meaning of § 9-1.5-102 (3). Mtn. States Tel. v. Dept. of Hwys., 857 P.2d 502 (Colo. App. 1993) (decided prior to the 1993 amendment), rev'd on other grounds, 869 P.2d 1289 (Colo. 1994).