Practice Statement:

A facility owner/operator has in place a robust, proactive mitigation program to identify and mitigate cross bores where its facilities may intrude upon another owner/operator’s facility. The facility owner/operator program promotes safe mitigation of cross bores. A facility owner/operator provides a communications network as a conduit for third parties to report potential cross bores. 

Practice Description:

Facility owners/operators implement a program to identify and mitigate instances where their facilities may intrude upon another facility owner/operator’s facility.

When a foreign object, such as a conduit, cable or pipe is suspected to be within a non-pressurized underground facility or when the operation of that facility is impaired, a report of a “potential cross bore” should be placed to a centralized point of contact (communications network). The communications network may be a service sponsored by the underground facility owners/operators or the One Call Center. The communications network notifies or provides the facility owner/operator's contact information for the reported location. These reports are treated as an “emergency” under the overriding state law.

After identifying potential cross bore(s), the facility owner/operator takes appropriate action using the latest technologies to inspect the facilities. Utilizing technologies such as camera inspection both pre-and post-construction is effective in preventing new cross bores and mitigating legacy cross bores. 

References:

• This practice is currently in place in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Virginia, Wisconsin and other states as well as through the regular ticket process in other states. The practice is performed in a number of different ways to convey a potential cross-bore report to the involved party and to prevent injury to the drain-cleaning professional and/or the property owner.