A Jamestown construction company faces a number of fines for allegedly violating North Dakota’s “call before you dig” law.
The Public Service Commission’s staff is proposing $60,000 in fines for Northwest Excavating. Many of the violations took place in and around Ross, North Dakota.
"This is, by far, the largest we've ever seen," said Commission chairman Brian Kalk. "It's unprecedented."
Kalk says this is also the first time the Commission has had a formal hearing on “call before you dig” violations. Kalk says MDU and Reservation Telephone signed complaints against Northwest Excavating after pipelines and underground cables were damaged.
"It shows that the industry has continued to improve what it's doing out there, but the tolerance for people that have strikes is really down to almost zero," said Kalk. "There's nothing decided here. But we'll have a lot of good discussion about these 14 cases."
The formal hearing will be held February third.