House Status:
Senate Status:
Senate Status:
Minutes for HB2226 - Committee on Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications
Short Title
Extending the time period for notice of excavations and permitting use of virtual whitelining for excavations.
Minutes Content for Thu, Feb 9, 2023
Chairperson Delperdang opened the hearing on HB2226.
Jessie Pringle provided an overview of the bill. (Attachment14). Ms. Pringle responded to questions from committee members.
Chair recognized proponents for in person testimony as follows:
Leo Haynos, Kansas Corporation Commission (Attachment15) testified in support of the bill. Mr. Haynos said the bill would update for more efficiency to the locate process. He said the significant change would be to allow virtual whitelining, that is now possible using mapping technology. He said by allowing this process, he would expect to see more precise locating of just what the excavator needs and lead by more efficient use of the locators time.
Patrick Vogelsberg, Kansas Gas Service (Attachment16) testified in support of the bill. He said Kansas Gas Service is the largest natural gas company in the state. They locate their own gas lines for excavators. This bill would allow notable changes that include updating the definition of whitelining to formally allow an excavator to designate excavation areas through electronic means as technology now permits. Electronic whitelining increases project efficiency and communication between excavators, utility operators and its locators.
Rex Schick, K&W Underground (Attachment17) testified in support of the bill. Mr. Schick believes it is time to revise the Underground Damage prevention rules and regulations to help improve the results for damage prevention. He said currently it is common for an excavator to not receive accurate and timely locate marks and creates costly delays, increases the likelihood for damages to underground infrastructure and danger to workers and general public.
Proponents Written Only testimony as follows:
Michael Ruffin, AT&T (Attachment18)
Chairperson Delperdang recognized neutral written only testimony as follows:
Steven Cowan, Black Hills Energy (Attachment19)
Michael Koss, City of Overland Park (Attachment20)
Chairperson Delperdang recognized opponent in person testimony as follows:
Christopher Cross, USIC, Central Plains Region (Attachment21) testified as an opponent of the bill. Mr Cross has concerns of the proposal to increase the life of a ticket from 15 to 20 days, that there has been no data given to the committee that would support the change and he believes the effect of the changes would diminish public safety. He said the changes to the damage prevention would increase the damages, not prevent damages. Mr. Cross said excavators update tickets due to inadequate planning, tickets that are too long or excavator can't complete the excavation in 15 days or the paint has been destroyed. He said all of these causes are all managed by the excavator, and there is no data provided to support a change will decrease the amount of updates, he believes it will increase the number of updates.
Chairperson Delperdang recognized Tom Shimon, Director of Dig-Safe to explain the process of whitelining. Mr. Shimon explained whitelining is a process excavators use to identify physically on the ground. Contractors will mark where the excavation will take place then the locate company will mark that area only. He said with technology the excavator can use a white line for marking and that not all utilities are equipped to send drawings.
The conferees responded to questions from the committee members.
Chairperson Delperdang closed the hearing on HB2226.
The next House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunication meeting is scheduled for February 14th.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:24am.
