House Bill 396 Act No. 249 was signed by Governor Jindell on June 17, 2010. These changes become effective on September 1, 2010. The following is a summary of the changes:
- The definition of “excavation or excavate” was extended to exclude normal probing.
- A definition for “Forestry excavation” was added to mean an excavator who is a logger, prescribed burner, site preparation operator, or tree planter for commercial forestry operations.
- Allows for electronic notice of intent to excavate or demolish be given instead of telephonic notice. A record of this notice is required to also be retained by the regional notification center for 3 years from the date of notification.
- No longer excludes cable television from becoming a member of, participating in and sharing the cost of a regional notification center.
- The regional notification center must have the capability to receive emergency locate requests 24 hours a day and to disseminate the information as soon as it is received to the appropriate operators and all affected regional notification centers in the state.
- Requires all member operators to furnish the regional notification center with current emergency contact or notification information including 24 hour telephone numbers.
- Markings performed at the request of a forestry excavator are deemed good as long as the markings are visible or up to 30 calendar days from the time the markings were made, whichever is shorter.