Underground Utility Line Locates

Call Before Digging — call 811 — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 

Planning to dig? Perhaps you will be putting in a new flower border, planting a tree, or placing fence posts. All residents, contractors or anyone planning to dig must call to request the location of underground utilities 48 hours before digging. This is a requirement of Oregon law: Sections 1 to 5 and 7, Chapter 691, Oregon Laws 1995. 

What happens if you don't call:

• Services such as electricity, cable TV, gas, water, telephone, etc... may be interrupted to you or your neighborhood.
• Your job/project may be delayed.
• You may be responsible for repair costs to utility lines and/or experience other legal problems.
• You may experience a serious or life-threatening injury.

What happens when you call: 

When you call the locate center, they will ask you for information. Have the following information ready before you call:

• Your name and telephone number
• An alternate name and telephone number of someone else who knows about your project 
•  Will work take place within 10 feet of overhead power lines?
• What type of work are you planning to do?
• Who is the work being done for?
• City, County, and state where work is being done
• Address or location of the work site
• Nearest cross street
• Distance and direction from nearest cross street
• Any special instructions you wish to give for the utility companies that will be marking your site (e.g., "Mark the entire front yard at this address," or "Mark the area marked in white."
• Township, Range and Section (if possible)

The locate center will notify local utility companies. Representatives of the utility companies will come to your site to mark the location of their underground lines with spray paint, indicating the type of line by using standardized colors to represent the type of underground structure:

• White - Used to indicate proposed excavation or digging at the site by the property owner, contractor, or utility company that needs to work on their underground structures.
• Pink - Temporary survey markings
• Red - Electric power lines, cables, conduit and lighting cables
• Yellow - Gas, oil, steam, petroleum or gaseous materials
• Orange - Communication, telephone, alarm or signal lines, cables or conduit including cable television
• Blue - Potable water
• Purple - Reclaimed water, irrigation and slurry lines
• Green - Sanitary sewer and storm drain lines

For more information about locate markings: 

If you find locate markings on or near your property and want to know what work is planned, use the one-call Search & Status database to find out who requested the locates and what work they are planning to do.