5 Steps to Safe Digging

At least 3 business days prior to digging on your property contact MISS DIG 811:

• By placing an e-Locate at e-suite.missdig811.org
• Or by calling: 811 1-800-482-7171

You will receive an email with your ticket number to use later to check Positive Response status from the facility owner/operator (the Utility Company)

The facility owner / operators (the Utility Company) have 3 business days to go out to your property and mark where their facilities are located.

They use paint and / or flags to identify the approximate location of their lines.

Then the facility owner / operator must go online to MISS DIG 811 Positive Response to record their status of what they did to your property when they marked facility lines.

Some lines will not be marked because they are not owned by the facility company. Those will need to be marked by a private locator.

• You must wait 3 business days for a response from all facility owner / operators (the Utility Company), so they have time to mark their facilities with flags and / or paint.
• After the 3 business days you must go online to status.missdig811.org to verify that ALL facilities have been marked. Enter your ticket number and review the responses from the facilities.
• ALL the facility responses must be green before you can begin digging.
• If you see a yellow or red response from a facility owner/ operator and your start work date and time has arrived, then you will need to contact MISS DIG by dialing 811.
• Ask the operator for additional assistance from those facility owner/ operators who have responded with yellow or red response.
• Positive Response codes

Congratulations!

You are ready to begin your project if all facilities are marked, your start work date and time has arrived, and Positive Response statuses are all green!

Make sure you know where and what facilities are in your workspace.

Look around to make sure all facilities have been marked. If you see a pedestal, meter, transformer, fire hydrant, etc. on site and no flags or paint coming from them, a facility may have been missed.  Call 811 for additional assistance.

Most importantly keep yourself, family, and friends safe. Make sure you are digging in the Safe Zone (more than 4 ft out on either side of facility markings). If you are closer than 4 ft out from facility markings (in the Caution Zone) you must first, hand expose the facility lines to determine their exact location before digging to ensure you do not harm yourself or cut off service.

Do NOT remove the flags until the work is complete or after 21 days.