FOR: Water Subcommittee Meeting [July 24, 2024]
TO: Honorable Water Subcommittee Members
APPROVAL: Tanya Williams, Assistant City Manager
FROM: Toyasha Sebbag, Assistant to the City Manager
...Title
Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety Underground Safety Board: Notice of Probable Violation. (ACTION)
...Body
BACKGROUND
The Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety Underground Safety Board (Underground Safety Board) was created by the Dig Safe Act of 2016 to investigate accidents, develop excavation safety standards, and coordinate education and outreach programs.
The Underground Safety Board is made up of nine members appointed by the Governor and Legislature. Members are charged with overseeing the safety of excavations around buried utilities by 1. Coordinating the state's education and outreach efforts; 2. Investigating accidents to determine their causes; 3. Setting standards for safe excavation; and 4. Ensuring the state's safe excavation laws are followed.
The Underground Safety Board exercises no direct regulatory authority, it cannot issue penalties. Instead, its enforcement philosophy is to make recommendations to the local agency assigned with regulatory enforcement of laws. Per ? 4216.6(d), a local agency, in our case the City of Rialto City Council is the enforcement agency to review possible violations and may issue penalties.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
In May 2024, staff was notified in a letter from the Underground Safety Board of a probable violation stemming from an event that occurred on July 10, 2023. The probable violation claims that the City of Rialto, Rialto Water Services (RWS) as operated by Veolia of North America (Veolia) violated Government Code ? 4216.3(c)(1)(A): Failure to provide an electronic positive response before the legal start date and time [to a DigAlert request].
Staff met with Veolia who stated that staff direction and policy was that they were not authorized to go onto private property, not even to mark und...
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