Canadians in the midst of renovations or construction can be frustrated by delays caused when work crews must wait for permission to dig.

Homeowner Jim Lawson (name changed) and his family waited almost a week in the midst of a renovation for City of Toronto crews to restore water to their house when damage to a shut off valve on their property cut off their water supply. City workers attributed the delay to time spent waiting for permission to excavate.

What property owners may not realize is these excavation precautions are essential to eliminating property damage, personal injury and loss of life.

In 2003, the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), Ontario's fuels safety regulator, reported three incidents caused by excavation errors that killed or injured nineteen individuals:

• A natural gas explosion leveled a two-storey Toronto building containing four stores and four apartments after a construction contractor damaged a pipeline during excavation. The incident claimed the lives of seven individuals, injured four others and created extensive property damage to surrounding properties.

• An explosion in Windsor caused the death of a pipeline worker and seriously injured three other people.

• A third explosion, caused by a pipeline that was hit during excavation, seriously injured four people in Toronto.

Late last year, TSSA charged three companies with violating safety requirements under the provincial Technical Standards and Safety Act in connection with the first explosion and resulting fire:

• Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. and its agent, Precision Utility Ltd., were both charged with failure to provide fully-accurate information regarding the location of underground natural gas pipelines.

• The construction company involved was charged with digging without determining the exact location of underground natural gas pipelines and damaging said pipeline.

This case is still before the courts. Maximum penalties per count under the Act are C$50,000 for individuals and C$1,000,000 for corporations.

The Government of Ontario created the TSSA in 1996 to efficiently and effectively deliver specific public safety services to Ontario industries under the Act. TSSA uses a risk-based approach to regulating public safety and concentrates on areas where it considers risk to be the greatest.

Annual safety statistics compiled by TSSA over the past six years reveal that human error is responsible for the majority of natural gas pipeline incidents in Ontario. Excavators either neglected to locate pipelines before digging or failed to follow proper excavation practices. Many of the pipeline incidents reported to TSSA over the last several years, including a great number of the 4,372 incidents reported in 2003, involved homeowners and contractors digging a garden, landscaping or excavating a patio area or pool area who failed to call their natural gas utility before digging and, therefore, scraped or damaged underground gas lines.

TSSA encourages the reporting of all incidents, no matter how minor, to identify trends and safety concerns that might otherwise go undetected. Companies and individuals are legally required to obtain information on the location of underground natural gas pipelines prior to excavation. Natural gas utilities and others operate a free line-locating service -- Ontario One Call (1-800-400-2255) -- for those planning to dig near buried natural gas lines.

TSSA also conducts contractor audits of private dwellings or residential locations to inspect installation and maintenance of fuel-burning equipment which includes furnaces, water heaters and pool heaters. The major cause of the 208 hazardous incidents in 2003 was human error which included:

• Improper installation;

• Failure to test or inadequate testing of piping and fittings, and

• Poor maintenance.

"Prosecution for non-compliance with Ontario's fuels safety laws continues to be an important enforcement tool," said TSSA President and CEO Margaret Kelch. "Prevention, however, is the key to improving safety. We deliver strong enforcement activities in combination with greater safety education and training for workers and the public ... Together, these actions are the best approach to protecting life and property."

Published: November 2, 2004

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