Page 10 - Tennessee 811 Magazine 2020 Issue 3

QA Questions on The
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Q&A with Kevin T
Underground Damage Enforcement Board
ubberville, Chairman of the Underground Damage Enforcement Board
1. What is the role of the board in preventing damage to buried utilities?
Our role is to enforce the laws on the books to make sure people are digging safe and calling Tennessee 811 when they need to. Our first goal is to educate and get violators into training. We’re not here to punish, but to prevent damage and promote safety. Of course, if you keep violating you will get into financial penalties.
2. What does enforcement board service mean to you as an industry professional?
The Board is a part-time obligation for me. But it’s also public service and I take a lot of pride in that. In some ways it is not much different from my day job. My profession and the Board consider safety a priority. I have enjoyed meeting and serving with some great people. You would think a Board of seventeen members would be like herding cats. But everyone has worked well together.
3. What has been the development/growth of the program so far?
Before the Board existed, there wasn’t a place for these types of issues to get resolved except to go to court. Working with the staff of the Tennessee Public Utility Commission, we’ve built a program up from scratch. We’ve been able to take advantage of the training and expertise that TN 811 provides.
4. What are some pain points or challenges that are tough to address?
I would like to see more complaints filed. Just to give an example, there are thousands of hits on natural gas systems every year, but only a handful of operators are filing complaints. Just because there is a hit doesn’t mean someone has violated the law. But there’s a lot out there that could be violations. We’re here to help educate, promote safe digging, and train people to prevent the next damage.
5. What are some indications that we’re making a difference?
We’ve come a long way. Today you’ve got the representatives of excavators, operators, locators, TN 811 and the State of Tennessee working in a partnership. It took years just to get everyone on the same page to support the creation of the Board. Now, we’re meeting regularly, and the floor is open on any discussion. Not every complaint is going to result in a violation. We don’t rubber stamp complaints. The Board’s Executive Committee calls the balls and strikes on those. But when our Executive Committee finds there is a violator, the violator is going to get trained. More and more people are buying in. And that’s a big jump forward from where we were five years ago.
8 • Tennessee811
2020, Issue 3