Facility Owners

Frequently Asked Questions

If you own or operate an underground line that serves one or more customers or consumers in Pennsylvania, you are required by the UULP Law to be a member of Pennsylvania One Call System. This includes a municipality if they maintain culverts, traffic loops, storm drains, or any other underground line providing service. 

The facility owner is required to review the locate request to determine possible confilicts.It is the job of the facility owner to decide whether or not the location of the proposed excavation work is close to their existing underground facilities. 
  • If the work is near the facility owner's underground facilities, they are required to mark their lines at the site and respond to the locate request with a 003-Field Marked response
  • If the work is not near the facility owner's underground facilities, the facility owner should respond with a 001-Clear No Facilities response to the locate request

No, you are required by law to mark the location of the underground lines you own and/or operate.
Legal Opinion from General Counsel

KARL stands for Kathy Automated Response to Location Requests. It creates a "mailbox" for each serial number in order to collect and store the responses for each facility owner. These responses are then sent to the excavator via an email or fax. If a fax or email or unavailable, the excavator is able to call in to retrieve the responses. 

The number for KARL is 1-800-222-6470 or 412-464-7138. 

The facility owner is required to respond to all notices through the One Call System. The response shall be made not later than the end of the 2nd business day following receipt of the notification by the One Call System, excluding the business day upon which the notification is received, or not later than the day prior to the lawful start date of excavation if the excavator specifies a later date or, in the case of an emergency, to respond through the One Call System as soon as practicable following receipt of notification of the emergency by the One Call System. 
 

The facility owner should call the excavator directly to ask for specific information. They can also respond to KARL with a interim response of 004-Insufficient Information. Once the facility owner has obtained enough information to regarding the site, the interim response should be updated to either 001-Clear No Facilities or 003-Field Marked. 

The facility owner can also file and Alleged Violation Report (AVR).

This information should be shared in the following instances:
  • For a preliminary or final design request
  • During a preconstruction meeting
  • For a locate request where the specific excavation area is identified with white paint or flags

Facility owners may use standard locating techniques suitable to each type of line being located based on accepted engineering and operational practices, and mark with paint, stake, and/or flags, according to the APWA/Common Ground Alliance Best Practices for Temporary Markings. 
 
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The facility owner is responsible to pothole to determine the size of the line and can also call the excavator to discuss the site. 
 

Yes, the facility owner should attend the preconstruction meeting. The facility owner can send a representative, if the representative is able to make decisions on behalf of the facility owner. 

If the facility owner is unable to attend the preconstruction meeting, they should contact the excavator to talk about their concerns and to give their input for the locating schedule prior to the preconstruction meeting. 
 

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is charged with enforcing PA Act 287, as amended. 

If you observe excavation work and have reason to believe that a one call notification was not placed, you may contact the Pennsylvania One Call System at 1-800-242-1776 to place a No One Call notification. Pennsylvania One Call System will search its records for the worksite you describe to determine if a valid notification was placed. If none is found we will notify the utilities in the area of the excavation work.

​Additionally, any alleged violation should be reported to the PUC by completing an Alleged Violation Report.