Montana § 69-4-525 - Underground Facilities Damage -- Underground Facility Owner Civil Penalties

§ 69-4-525. Underground Facilities Damage -- Underground Facility Owner Civil Penalties

Underground facilities damage -- underground facility owner civil penalties. (1) Except as provided in 69-4-529 (3), within 14 days of receiving an incident report in accordance with subsection (2), the department shall issue a civil penalty in accordance with this section. (2) If an incident is reported because a locate and mark was not properly completed or if the locate and marks provided were not reasonably accurate for locatable underground facilities, the underground facility owner shall be assessed a civil penalty in accordance with subsections (3) and (4). (3) Except as provided in subsection (5), if the incident involves an underground facility that is not a jurisdictional pipeline, the civil penalty is the greater of $50 or twice the last civil penalty issued to the underground facility owner, not to exceed $10,000. (4) Except as provided in subsection (5), if the incident involves an underground facility that is a jurisdictional pipeline, the civil penalty is the greater of $100 or three times the last civil penalty issued to the underground facility owner, not to exceed $25,000. (5) If an underground facility owner is not a member of a notification center pursuant to 69-4-502 (3), the penalties included in subsections (3) and (4) double. (6) (a) For the purposes of this section and subject to subsections (6)(b) and (6)(c), the last civil penalty is the dollar amount of the civil penalty that would have been issued to the underground facility owner under this part based on incidents occurring in the lesser of: (i) the last 100 outgoing locate requests made to the underground facility owner; or (ii) a rolling 12-month period based on the incident date. (b) If an incident is subject to subsection (3), the civil penalty must be calculated as if all previous incidents were subject to subsection (3). (c) If an incident is subject to subsection (4), the civil penalty must be calculated as if all previous incidents were subject to subsection (4).