ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
REVISED
power line safety
Requires
a person responsible for work on overhead high voltage power lines to give
notice to the Utilities Protection Center before beginning the work, and
requires the Registrar of Contractors to give each licensee a copy of the
overhead power lines educational pamphlet with each license and renewal.
With respect to high power voltage lines, statute currently requires any person who desires to temporarily work or operate in closer than allowed proximity to any high voltage overhead line to promptly notify the public utility operating the line. Work is allowed only after satisfactory mutual agreements, including coordination of work and construction schedules, have been made between the public utility and the person performing the work. Arrangements can include temporary deenergization and grounding or temporary relocation or raising of high voltage lines. The party responsible for performing the work must pay the expenses associated with the agreement.
In
an effort to address power line safety, S.B. 1343 establishes a Utility
Protection Center (Center), which can be the blue stake center, to receive
notification of the intent to work near an overhead line, creates a uniform
ten-foot minimum working clearance (rather than the six feet clearance for
persons and tools and ten feet for cranes and hoisting equipment), and requires
utility companies to create and supply the Registrar of Contractors with an
overhead power line educational pamphlet to be distributed by the Registrar
with each license and renewal. This
legislation also requires persons responsible for performing the work to notice
the Center before beginning the work and deems notice to mean actual
notification given to the Center.
There
is no discernable fiscal impact to the state general fund associated with this
legislation.
1. Requires all utilities to organize, participate as members in and cooperate with the Center. Allows the One-call Notification Center to serve as the center, in lieu of organizing a new center, and if so, prohibits a duplicative center from being established. Requires all utilities to fund the activities of the center relating to high voltage lines.
2. Requires the person responsible for the work to give notice to the Center, when work is to be done, at least 72 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) before the time scheduled to begin the work and specifies information included in the notice.
3. Deems notice to the Center as actual notice to the owner or operator.
4. Requires the owner or operator of the high voltage line, after receiving the notice of work to be performed, to contact the person in charge of the work so appropriate satisfactory arrangements can be made for the completion of the required safety precautions. Specifies types of arrangements.
5. Requires the person responsible for the work to pay the actual expenses of the owner or operator of the overhead lines in providing arrangements for clearances, excluding instances when the utility operating overhead lines has installed within ten feet of an existing fixture or structure after the structure or fixture has been permanently placed. Specifies utilities are not required to provide arrangements for clearances until an agreement for payment has been made.
6. Requires the utility to begin construction for temporary clearances within five working days after an agreement for payment, if required, or from the date satisfactory arrangements are agreed on. Requires the person responsible for the work to give a new notice if, after arrangements are made, a delay in beginning the work occurs.
7. Specifies the person responsible for the work must ensure the safety requirements are completed before beginning the work
8. Deems a person responsible for the work who commits a violation resulting in physical or electrical contact with any overhead line liable for costs of defending any claims incurred by a utility as a result of the contact.
9. Requires, before beginning any work, every person, firm or corporation to first review with every person actually performing the work the requirements of high voltage power lines and safety restrictions statutes.
10. Prohibits a person, firm or corporation from beginning any work if at any time any person or any work can be brought within ten feet of clearance of any high voltage line rated at 50 kilovolts (KV) or less, or for lines rated at more than 50 KV, ten feet plus four-tenths of an inch for each KV over 50 KV until both:
(a)
The
person responsible for the work has given notice to the Utilities Protection
Center.
(b)
The
owner or operator of the high voltage line has effectively guarded against
danger from accidental contact by a specified safeguard deemed by the owner or
operator to be feasible under the circumstances.
11. Requires the Registrar of Contractors to distribute, with each contractor’s license and license renewal, the Overhead Power Line Educational Pamphlet.
12. Requires all utility companies, in consultation with specified parties, to prepare an educational pamphlet relating to overhead power lines to help contractors and others identify potential safety hazards associated with overhead power lines and inform them of the safety and notice requirements.
13. Requires utilities to provide the Registrar of Contractors with a sufficient quantity of pamphlets to enable the Registrar to distribute them with each license and license renewal.
14. Prescribes definitions.
15. Makes conforming changes.
16. Provides for a general effective date.
Amendments Adopted by Committee
1. Deems notice to the Utilities Protection Center as actual notice to the owner or operator.
2. Defines “dangerously close to high voltage lines.”
3. Makes conforming changes.
Senate Action
CANR 2/10/00 DPA 7-0-2-0
Prepared by Senate Staff
February 14, 2000