LAC 43:XI.6103. Emergency Excavation; Notice Required; Penalty (Formerly §2709)

A. The notice required pursuant to §6101 shall not apply to any person conducting an emergency excavation. Oral or electronic notice of the emergency excavation shall be given as soon as practicable to the regional notification center or each operator having underground pipelines located in the area and, if necessary, emergency assistance shall be requested from each operator in locating and providing immediate protection to its underground pipelines. B. The excavator shall certify in the notice required in Subsection A of this Section that the situation poses an imminent threat or danger to life, health, or property or is the result of an unplanned pipeline outage and requires immediate action and that the excavator, or owner or operator has personnel on site. C. There is a rebuttable presumption that the excavator failed to give notice as required pursuant to this Section if the excavator failed to give any notice to the regional notification center within the following time periods: 1. within two hours from the discovery of the need for an emergency excavation; 2. in the case of a gubernatorially declared state of emergency due to a weather or homeland security-related event, within 12 hours of the beginning of the emergency excavation within the parishes to which the emergency declaration applies; 3. in the case of a wildfire, within 24 hours after control of the emergency. D. The owner or operator of the pipeline facilities shall respond to an emergency notice as soon as practicable under the circumstances. E. Emergency excavation notices are valid for as long as the emergency situation exists. The type of work and location shall remain consistent with the work described in the excavation notice. If the type of work and location become inconsistent with the emergency excavation notice, then a new excavation notice is required.