National Safe Digging Month

ZANESVILLE, OH – April is National Safe Digging Month.

In observance of this month, Columbia Gas is releasing data from a recent national survey they conducted. The survey revealed that about 51% of homeowners planned to complete an outdoor do it yourself project in the next year. 56% of those homeowners did not plan on calling ahead to 8-1-1 to check for underground utility lines, which can put you and others at risk.

Erica Chronaberry, Communications Manager for Columbia Gas of Ohio, talked about the importance of calling ahead before you start any major yard work.

“There are a lot of underground utility lines and if you don’t know where those utility lines are and you’re digging and you hit one of those lines, that could be a safety issue,” Chronaberry said. “You might be on the hook for paying for repairs of those lines and you could also probably cause an outage in your neighborhood.”

Chronaberry said the process after calling 8-1-1 for your next project is very simple and only takes a few days.

“Once they contact 8-1-1, they’re just going to provide a little information, that really takes no time at all,” Chronaberry said. “Once that is done, within two business days, a professional locator will come out to your property and they will locate, all around your property, those underground utility lines. The way they mark those lines, so you know where they are at, is either through paint or with flags.”

Chronaberry said if you plan to hire a contractor to complete a job for you to make sure they are calling 8-1-1. She said it is the contractor’s responsibility to make sure everything is safely marked before the work begins.