1
Unmarked Sewer Lines A Problem?
DCA Mid Year Meeting Sun Valley, Idaho July 21th,
2006

• Mike Kemper, NPL Construction Company

2
THE OFTEN FORGOTTEN UNDERGROUND WORLD
3
More More Utilities Are Installed Using
Trenchless Technology
4
Do We Have a Problem?
What could happen?
5
(No Transcript)
6
What happens when a sewer line is hit during
trenchless operations?
What happens when a plumber is called?
7
Utility Service line Sewer Line Cutting Auger
Disaster
8
Headline February 15, 2002 Officials Seek
Answers In Gas Explosion
9
HeadlineFebruary 16, 2002Shocked Gas Company
Pleads Ignorance

• A plumbing contractor was removing tree roots
  from a sewer line in the 127 unit mobile home
  park when the gas line was breached.
• The natural gas explosion that rocked a mobile
  home park shocked officials who said they never
  knew their gas line bisected the clay sewer pipe.
• Operations Manager with the Local Gas Company
  About the only time we know about sewer lines is
  when people call because they get backed up and
  have to call someone in to clean them.

10
HeadlineMarch 13, 2006Woman, Granddaughters
Barely Escape Explosion

11
HeadlineMarch 17, 2006Answers in Gas Home
Explosion

• The subcontractor the Local Gas Company hired to
  install new gas lines ran a gas line into a sewer
  line. The augur went right through the gas pipe
  and they didnt even know they had done that. -
  Fire Marshall
• Fire Chief A plumber used an auger to unclog a
  sewer line and accidentally hit a gas line. When
  he saw bubbles in the water smelled gas, he
  told a grandmother 3 grandkids to get out of
  the home immediately, likely saving lives.

12
HeadlineMarch 18, 2006 Investigation Absolves
Plumber of Explosion

• As soon as they got out of the home, it blew up.
• City Building Inspector The plumber did
  absolutely nothing wrong. He had no way of
  knowing
• The contractor did the work like any other
  contractor Theres no system to know exactly
  where sewers are, especially to a house on a
  hill. Theyre pretty good at it, but its a
  complicated process

13
The Explosion Aftermath

• The City issued a halt on all directional
  drilling in the city.
• City Inspectors say this affects more than
  residents of their own city.

14
Your State? Your Job?
15
Its not just about Gas

• Tom Anderson of Lincoln, NE states
• "Big problem. Plumbers who hit high voltage
  electric lines while cleaning a sewer clog do not
  have time to run. Hitting a gas or water line at
  least gives a person a chance to run, but hit
  electric, and you are shocked."

16
The dangers of cross-bored sewer lines exist in
every neighborhood
17
Commercial Building
School
Residential Home
Mobile Home Park
Apartment Complex
18
How often does this happen?
19
Minnesota

• 27 incidents reported to the Minnesota Public
  Utilities Commission

20
Palo Alto, CA Case Study

• 4 Blocks Were Inspected
• 24 Hits Were Discovered.

21
What are the odds?Another Case Study
11,000 Laterals Were Inspected
250 Hits Identified And Repaired
2 of Sewer Laterals Were Hit.

• How Many Might Have Led To A Major Incident?

22
LOW FREQUENCYHIGH SEVERITY
The Exposure
23
High Severity

1. Catastrophic Human Tragedy
2. Huge Property Costs

24
THE GREATEST CONCERN

• CATASTROPHIC PERSONAL LOSSES
• Because Some
• Utility Lines
• Are
• EXEMPT
• FROM
• LOCATING LAWS

25
Who pays the property costs?

• Contractors and Utilities are often held
  responsible for hitting these unmarked, unknown
  utility lines
• As the insurance industry is rapidly becoming
  aware of this exposure, insurance rates are on
  the rise and the ability to secure insurance for
  trenchless technology is becoming in jeopardy.

26
THE ROOT CAUSE A CATCH 22

• Crews have no practical way of finding them are
  often even prohibited from checking for them due
  to governmental no-cut policies.
• The laws in many States do not require all
  privately-owned some publicly-owned sewer
  facilities to be marked.
• The laws in some States are not well enforced.

27
THE CHALLENGE

• Most states are only now starting to address the
  issue.
• There is little awareness of the issue outside
  the contracting and insurance industries.
• Our liability exposure is escalating each year as
  more trenchless installations are done the
  costs of claims keeps rising.

28
Houston, we have a problem

• -Tom Hanks in
• Apollo 13

29
Luck is not a strategy

• Steve Ewing
• Chairman AGA
• Vice Chair, DTE Energy

30
What is our strategy?

• Do we have one?
• Is the DCA part of the solution?
• How could the DCA help?

31
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good men to do nothing." -
Edmund Burke
32
What it takes in each State

• A local Champion(s)
• Political expertise (available for hire)
• About 50,000
• Other committed individuals
• Organizational support (NUCA, DCA )

33
Alabama Colorado Alaska Connecticut Arizona
Delaware Arkansas Florida California Georgia
34
Hawaii Kansas Idaho Kentucky Illinois Loui
siana Indiana Maine Iowa Maryland
35
Massachusetts Montana Michigan Nebraska Minneso
ta Nevada Mississippi New Hampshire Missouri
New Jersey
36
New Mexico Oklahoma New York Oregon North
Carolina Pennsylvania North Dakota Rhode
Island Ohio South Carolina
37
South Dakota Virginia Tennessee Washington Texa
s West Virginia Utah Wisconsin Vermont Wyo
ming
38
THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE!
39
We Will Win!