Common Private Utility Locating Mistakes on Rural Properties

On acreage there is usually more private line than public. One meter at the road, then everything else — the well and pump feed, the shop and barn circuits, irrigation mains, the septic tank and drainfield, propane, and often a run to a pump house or stock tank that nobody has thought about in years.

These are the mistakes that turn a routine trench into a repair bill on rural property around Spokane, Deer Park, Bend, Boise, the Rogue Valley and the coast.

Assuming the 811 marks cover the property

811 marks public facilities to the meter. On a 10 acre parcel that may be 60 feet of the total line on site. Everything past the meter is the owner's responsibility to locate. In Idaho, Code 55-2205 requires two to ten business days notice and expects the dig path to be white-lined; none of that changes who owns the private line. Montana is explicit that a facility owner attempting to identify a private line is not liable for its accuracy under MCA 69-4-503(7).

Trusting the previous owner's memory

Rural line gets installed as needed, by whoever was available, in whatever route made sense that day. Second-hand accounts of where the water line runs are usually approximate and often describe a line that was later abandoned and replaced on a different route. The abandoned one is still in the ground.

Digging on direct-burial electric without a locate

Feeds to shops, barns, pumps and gates are frequently direct burial, shallow, and unmarked. They are also the ones most likely to be live. A shovel through an unmarked 240 volt feed is a different event from nicking an irrigation line.

Forgetting the drainfield

Septic tanks and drainfields are easy to drive over and expensive to repair. Equipment traffic across a field during a fence or utility project causes damage that shows up months later as a failing system.

Waiting for the marks to expire

Marks do not last indefinitely. Washington marks expire 45 calendar days from the date notice was given. Oregon ticket life is 30 calendar days. Montana requires a re-mark if excavation has not started within 30 days of marking, and a third locate at the same site is at the excavator's cost. Digging on old paint is digging blind.

Not checking the marks that are there

If a mark looks wrong, missing, or has been disturbed by weather or equipment, call the operator that owns the line before digging. Marking concerns numbers by county: Oregon, Washington, North Idaho, Montana.

Colour tells you what a mark represents, not who put it down: see utility marking colors explained.

Get the private lines located first

Advanced Underground Utility Locating has been locating private utilities since 2002. We locate the lines 811 will not mark, verify the public marks that were made, and mark public lines that were missed. RTK data collection is available as an option if you want the locate captured as survey-grade points rather than paint.

Spokane, Coeur d'Alene and the Idaho panhandle: 509-710-2621. Seattle, Tacoma and Portland: 509-954-8623. Bend, Medford and northern California: 541-678-0629. Eugene and Roseburg: 541-780-4149. Coos Bay and the Oregon Coast: 541-315-6728. Emergency service is available 24 hours.