Digging Safely

If you're a contractor looking for information on dig safe practices or want to contact our Damage Prevention team, visit our Digging Safely for Contractors page.

Are you planting a tree? Building a deck or fence? Digging a pond? Did you know you need to get your underground utilities located before you start digging?

Hitting an underground natural gas line can have serious consequences like losing natural gas service to your home and neighbourhood (goodbye heat and hot water), paying for repairs and causing serious injury to yourself, family or others.

Avoid causing an outage by following these steps:

1. Visit ClickBeforeYouDig - Submit a locate request to get your underground utilities marked: It’s important to know where your underground utilities are so you don’t accidentally hit them once you start digging in your yard. Before you plan to start your work, visit clickbeforeyoudig.com to get your underground utilities marked - for free!
   
   Yellow flags or temporary paint mark the approximate location of your natural gas lines. The markings are valid for 30 days.
   
   
2. Plan Your Work Area: Your natural gas lines may be shallower than you think. As soil moves, changes or erodes, a line could be a few inches below the surface. It’s easy to puncture a natural gas line. Avoid this by planning your work area.
   
   For distribution lines, avoid digging within one metre of either side of the locate markings if possible.
   
   For transmission lines, crossing and or proximity agreements are required when working with 30m of the line.  
   
   
3. Dig Safe.   

If you hit an underground natural gas line, call our emergency line immediately at 1-800-511-3447.