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Pacific Gas and Electric Company Reminds Customers to Call Before You Dig April is safe digging month, and as people plan various garden and home improvement projects this spring, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reminds customers to always call 811 before digging. Whether it’s planting a tree, installing a sprinkler system or building a fence, homeowners and professional excavators need to know where gas and electric lines lay underground. The 811 hotline is a free service to obtain important information on what utilities exist beneath the excavation area. Natural gas pipelines, electric power lines and other utilities buried underground can lie within just a few feet of the surface. Accidental contact with these lines can be dangerous and even fatal. California law requires customers to notify utilities at least two working days before digging. Calling 811 puts customers in direct contact with Underground Service Alert (USA), a free utility notification service for anyone who plans any type of excavation project, no matter how small. Customers can call USA from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, except for holidays. Accidental damage to utility lines can disrupt gas and electric service to an entire neighborhood, cause significant property damage and lead to serious injury. USA notifies local utility companies to go out and mark the approximate location of their underground facilities in and around the excavation site. When underground lines are marked, customers can avoid them and prevent serious accidents from occurring. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to 15 million people in northern and central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/about/. Call PG&E at 1-800-743-5000 |
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