§ 37-12-301 — Short title; definitions

Wyoming § 37-12-301

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming
• Title 37: Public Utilities
• Ch. 12: CRIMES, OFFENSES AND CIVIL LIABILITIES
• Art. 3: DAMAGE TO UNDERGROUND

Text

(a) This act may be known and shall be cited as the
"Wyoming Underground Facilities Notification Act."
(b) As used in this act:
(i) "Business day" means any twenty-four (24) hour
period other than Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday;
(ii) "Emergency" means a sudden, unforeseen
occurrence, including a loss of communications, which demands
immediate action to protect the health, safety and welfare of
the public and to prevent loss of life, health, property or
essential public services and advance notice to the notification
center prior to excavation is impracticable under the
circumstances. "Emergency" shall include, but is not limited
to, ruptures and leakage of pipelines, explosions, fires and
similar instances where immediate action is necessary to prevent
loss of life or significant damage to underground facilities or
the environment;
(iii) "Excavation" or "excavates" means any operation
in which earth, rock or other materials on or below the ground
is moved or otherwise displaced by means of hand or power tools,
power equipment or explosives or other means, and includes
grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, augering,
tunneling, boring, plowing-in, pulling-in, ripping, scraping and
cable or pipe installing, except tilling of soil and gardening
or agricultural purposes;
(iv) "Excavator" means any person or entity that
excavates or conducts excavation activities;
(v) "Impoundment" means a closed basin formed
naturally, or artificially built, which is dammed or excavated
for the retention of water, slurry or other liquid or semi-
liquid material;
(vi) "Notification center" means a center that
receives notice from excavators of planned excavation or other
requests for location and transmits this notice to participating
operators;
(vii) "Operator" means any person, including public
utilities, municipal corporations, political subdivisions or
other persons having the legal authority to bury, operate,
maintain, repair and replace underground facilities;
(viii) "Person" means an individual, partnership,
municipality, state, county, political subdivision, utility,
joint venture, corporation, limited liability company, statutory
trust or other business entity and includes the employer of an
individual;
(ix) "Secured facility" means a parcel of land used
for commercial or industrial purposes that is surrounded
entirely by a fence or other means of preventing access,
including a fence with one (1) or more gates that are locked at
all times or monitored by a person who can prevent unauthorized
access;
(x) "Sump" means a surface pit into which drilling
mud flows on reaching the surface of the well after being pumped
through the drill pipe and bit, then up through the annular
opening between the walls of the hole and the drill pipe,
carrying with it cuttings from the well, which settle out of the
mud in the sump pits;
(xi) "Underground facility" means any item of
personal property buried or placed below ground for use in
connection with the storage or conveyance of water, sewage,
electronic, telephonic or other form of electronic
communications, cable television, electric energy, oil, gas,
hazardous liquids or other substances and including but not
limited to pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines,
wires, manholes and attachments;
(xii) "Government entity" means any agency,
department, board, commission, authority, institution or
instrumentality of the state and any county, municipality or
other political subdivision of the state;
(xiii) "Public right-of-way" means any public street,
road, highway or sidewalk;
(xiv) "Soft digging" means any excavation using tools
or equipment that utilize air or water pressure as the direct
means to break up soil or earth for removal by vacuum
excavation;
(xv) "Area of risk" means an area not to exceed fifty
(50) feet from each side of an underground facility that is
located under or near a county road and that:
(A) Contains hazardous materials that present an
extreme risk to the health and safety of persons; or
(B) Is buried at a depth of less than twenty-
four (24) inches.
(xvi) "County road" means a road that is:
(A) Established pursuant to W.S. 24-3-101
through 24-3-127, identified pursuant to W.S. 24-3-201 through
24-3-206 or for which the county is responsible for improvements
and maintenance as designated by resolution of a board of county
commissioners;
(B) Open to the public;
(C) Depicted on county road maps; and
(D) Identified with county road signage.
(xvii) "Routine county road maintenance" means the
regular grading of a county road for the purpose of maintaining
the surface condition of the road or a roadside drainage ditch,
that does not extend more than four (4) inches below the surface
and does not result in alteration of the original grade, width
or flow line;
(xviii) "This act" means W.S. 37-12-301 through 37-
12-307.