Ohio Underground Damage Prevention Enforcement

In December 2014, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed Senate Bill 378 updating Ohio’s underground damage prevention laws in Section 3781 of the Ohio Revised Code, which will take effect January 1, 2016. These updates placed enforcement of the state damage prevention laws with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO)and created the Underground Technical Committee (UTC) to assist the PUCO in technical and legislative recommendations. Additional legislative updates were recently made to the Ohio Revised Code in creating Section 4901:1-2 Protection of Underground Utility Facilities to further clarify and define the processes by which the PUCO and the UTC will work together to investigate and hear inquiries of damage prevention law violations. This section also addresses how the PUCO will administer damage prevention grants, collect fines, and oversee meetings, one-call registrations, and general assembly reports.