(a) “Tolerance Zone” means a strip of land not less than 18 inches on either side measured on a horizontal plane and from the outer edge of the exterior surface of the underground facility.
(b) “Business Days” means any day other than business days, excluding Saturdays and legal holidays as provided in 1 V.I.C. § 171. “Hours” is meant to include all of the hours of a day.
(c) “Damage” means any impact upon or contact with, including without limitation, penetrating, striking, scraping, displacing, or denting, however slight, the protective coating, housing, duct, or other protective devices of any underground facility, or the removal or weakening of any lateral or vertical support from any underground facility, or the severance partial or complete, of any underground facility.
(d) “Demolish” or “demolition” means any operation by which a structure or mass of material is wrecked, razed, render, moved, or removed by means of any tool, equipment, or discharge of explosives, or any disturbances of the earth in any manner on public or private lands which could damage any underground facility.
(e) “Design Locate Request” means a communication to the Notification Center in which a request is made for locating existing utility facilities for bidding, predesign, or advance planning purposes. A Design Locate Request may not be used for excavation purposes.
(f) “Emergency” means a sudden, unexpected occurrence, involving a clear and imminent danger, demanding immediate action to prevent or mitigate loss of, or damage to, life, health, property, or essential public services. “Unexpected occurrence” includes, but is not limited to, fires, floods, windstorm, earthquakes or other soil or geologic movements, riots, accidents, vandalism, or sabotage that cause damage to an underground facility requiring immediate repair.
(g) “Excavation” means any operation in which earth, rock, or other material in the ground is moved, removed, or otherwise displaced by means of tools, equipment, or explosives in any of the following ways, including but not limited to: grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, auguring, boring, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing or driving, cable mining or salvage.
(h) “Excavator” means any person, firm, contractor or subcontractor. Operator, operator, utility, association, corporation, partnership, sole proprietor, business trust, government agency, or other entity which, with their, or his or her, own employees or equipment performs any excavation.
(i) “Field mark” means stakes, paint, pin flags or temporary marks made in some other customary manner, placed in accordance with the CGA Best Practices Appendix B that identifies the approximate location of an underground facility.
(j) “Government agency” means government agency as defined by 1 V.I.C. § 253.
(k) “Inquiry Identification Number” means a unique number that is provided by the Notification Center to every person who contacts the center informing the center of its intent to excavate. This is also referred to as a “locate request”.
(l) “Mechanized equipment” means equipment operated by means of mechanical power including trenchers, bulldozers, power shovels, augers, backhoes, scrapers, drills, cable and pipe plows and other equipment used for plowing-in or pulling-in cable or pipe.
(m) “Notification Center” means a singular nonprofit association of Operators” of underground facilities that receives and transmits advance warning of excavations or other work close to existing underground facilities, for the purpose of protecting those facilities from damage, removal, relocation, or repair, as established in section 692 of this chapter.
(n) “Operator” means a person who owns, operates or controls an underground facility. A person is not considered an Operator solely because the person is an Operator or tenant of real property where underground facilities are located if the underground facilities are used exclusively to furnish services or commodities on that property, unless the underground facility crosses a public right of way, or unless the person is the Government of the Virgin Islands or a government agency thereof.
(o) “Person” means any individual, corporation, business trust, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, estate, trust, association, partnership, association, joint venture, sole proprietor, government, government subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, public corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity.
(p) “Positive response” means a communication made to the Notification Center by an Operator reporting the status of a specific locate request.
(q) “Project engineer” means any architect, engineer, planner, estimator or other person who prepares plans that requires excavation as herein defined.
(r) “Proposed excavation work” means any excavation activity, or excavation planning and design work.
(s) “Public improvement” means any construction, reconstruction, improvement, enlargement, alteration, or repair of a building, roadway, drainage system, water system, street alleyway, sewer, ditch sewage disposal plant, water works, and all other structures or works of any nature by a government agency.
(t) “Underground Facility” means any public or private facility that is buried, placed below ground, or submerged on any Operator’s right-of-way. easement, or permitted use which is being used or will be used in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, power, communications, petroleum products, natural gas, sewage, or other such substances transported underground, and includes, but is not limited to, pipes, ducts, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines, and associated underground equipment. The term does not include a liquefied petroleum gas line, unless the line is subject to the requirements of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, provided there is no encroachment on any Operator’s right of-way, easement, or permitted use.