Service Locates Utility Lines Before You Dig Into Yard

As the weather grows warmer, Orange County homeowners’ thoughts turn to adding on decks, installing spas, planting shade trees.

Before lifting a shovel, don’t forget to call Corona-based Underground Service Alert--it’s the law.

USA is a nonprofit organization that funnels dig alerts to more than 800 member companies and agencies that own underground cables, wires and lines. Members mark their lines at the work site, preventing accidents.

USA was created 13 years ago, spurred into being by tragedy. In June 1976, a contractor hit a Chevron gas line in Culver City, setting off an explosion that killed nine people and leveled most of a city block.

Had a dig-alert system been in place, all companies or agencies with lines in the area would have been notified.

“Instead of having a contractor or property owner make 10 phone calls, they make one and we make the notifications,” USA President Ron Olitsky said.

Today, USA covers nine Southern California counties and handles 3,000 alerts a day. A separate organization, USA of Northern California, provides the same service for the rest of the state.

Olitsky gets some unusual calls.

Once, Los Angeles police phoned in, afraid they would cut into lines as they dug up a body. A company that builds tunnels on celebrities’ estates, allowing them to escape fans and reporters, uses USA regularly.

As more companies install fiber optic lines for modern communication systems, USA’s membership roll is expanding beyond public and private utilities such as Southern California Edison Co., Southern California Gas and Pacific Bell.

Cable companies, Walt Disney Co., several cemeteries and the region’s largest turkey ranch also have become part of the alert network. An area prison signed on after having a water line knocked out a few years ago over the Fourth of July weekend.

“Things were pretty ripe by Monday morning,” Olitsky said.

Anyone planning to excavate should call USA two working days in advance at (800) 227-2600. Diggers who fail to comply and get caught face fines of up to $50,000 on top of whatever it costs to clean up their mess.