As used in this Part, the following terms have the meanings ascribed to them in this Section:

            (1) “Agricultural excavator” means a person who owns or operates a farm and is directly involved in the cultivation of land or crops or who raises livestock.

            (2) “Commissioner” means the commissioner of conservation.

            (3) “Damage” means any defacing, scraping, gouging, breaking, cutting, or displacement of, impact upon or removal of an underground facility or utility or its means of primary support.

            (4) “Demolisher” means any person engaged in the act of demolishing as defined in Paragraph (2) of this Section.

            (5) “Demolition” means the total or partial wrecking, razing, rendering, moving, or removing of any building or structure, movable or immovable.

            (6) “Emergency” means any crisis situation which poses an imminent threat or danger to life, health, or property, which requires immediate action, if such action is taken. The term also includes an unplanned utility outage, which requires immediate action, if such action is taken.

            (7) “Excavation” or “excavate” means any operation causing movement or removal of earth, rock, or other materials in or on the ground or submerged in a marine environment that could reasonably result in damage to underground or submerged utilities or facilities by the use of powered or mechanical or manual means, including but not limited to pile driving, digging, blasting, augering, boring, back filling, dredging, compaction, plowing-in, trenching, ditching, tunneling, land-leveling, grading, and mechanical probing. “Excavation” or “excavate” shall not include manual probing, normal commercial farming operations, or any activity resulting from force majeure related occurrences, including but not limited to an act of God or an act of nature.

            (8) “Excavator” means any person who engages in excavation operations.

            (9) “Forestry excavator” means an excavator who is a logger, prescribed burner, site preparation operator, or tree planter for commercial forestry operations.

            (10) “Inclement weather” means weather that prohibits or impedes a worker’s use of his locating equipment or causes undue risk to himself or his equipment such as lightning, heavy rain, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, sleet, snow, or flooding conditions.

            (11) “Mark-by time” is the date and time provided by the regional notification center by which the utility or facility operator is required to mark the location or provide information to enable an excavator or demolisher, using reasonable and prudent means, to determine the specific location of the utility or facility as provided for in La. Rev. Stat. 40:1749.14(D). The mark-by time may be extended if mutually agreed upon and documented between the excavator and operator.

            (12) “Normal commercial farming operations” means the following operations or activities for agriculture cultivation purposes:

            (a) Operations or activities that do not encroach upon a private utility or pipeline servitude, public right-of-way, or a public franchise area.

            (b) Operations or activities that do encroach upon a private utility or pipeline servitude and the depth of the excavation is less than twelve inches in the soil below the existing surface grade.

            (13) “Operator” means any person who owns or operates a public or private underground facility or utility which furnishes a service or material or stores, transports, or transmits electric energy, steam, oil, gases, natural gas, gas, mixture of gases, petroleum, petroleum products, hazardous or flammable fluids, toxic or corrosive fluids/gases, including telephone or telegraph system, fiber optic electronic communication systems, or water or water systems, or drainage, sewer systems, or traffic control systems or other items of like nature.

            (14) “Person” means an individual, firm, partnership, association, limited liability company, corporation, joint venture, municipality, governmental agency, political subdivision, or agent of the state or any legal representative thereof.

            (15) “Pipeline” means all intrastate and interstate pipeline facilities defined by 49 C.F.R. § 192.3 and 49 C.F.R. § 195.2.

            (16) “Regional notification center” means any one of the following:

            (a) An entity designated as nonprofit by the Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code and which is organized to protect its members from damage and is certified by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections in accordance with this Part.

            (b) An organization of operators, consisting of two or more separate operators who jointly have underground utilities or facilities in three or more parishes in Louisiana, which is organized to protect its own installation from damage and has been certified by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections in accordance with this Part.

            (c) An operator who has underground utilities or facilities in a majority of parishes in Louisiana and is organized to protect its own installation from damage, and has been certified by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections in accordance with this Part.

            (17) “Service line or lines” means underground facilities or utilities which provide power, gas, natural gas, communication, or water capabilities to a building or structure or buildings or group of structures.

            (18) “Underground facility or utility” means any pipe, conduit, duct, wire, cable, valve, line, fiber optic equipment, or other structure which is buried or placed below ground or submerged for use in connection with storage, conveyance, transmission, or protection of electronics communication system, telephone or telegraph system, or fiber optic, electric energy, oil, natural gas, gas, gases, steam, mixture of gases, petroleum, petroleum products, hazardous or flammable fluids/gases, toxic or corrosive fluids/gases, hazardous fluids/gases, or other substances of like nature or water or water systems, sewer systems or traffic, drainage control systems, or other items of like nature.

            (19) “Wildfire” means an uncontrolled combustion of natural vegetation.

            Acts 1988, No. 923, §1; Acts 1997, No. 1050, §1, eff. July 11, 1997; Acts 1999, No. 506, §1, eff. June 29, 1999; Acts 2010, No. 249, §1, eff. Sept. 1, 2010; Acts 2011, No. 38, §1, eff. Oct. 1. 2011; Acts 2012, No. 103, §1; Acts 2014, No. 203, §1; Acts 2016, No. 245, §1, eff. May 26, 2016; Acts 2017, No. 218, §2, eff. June 14, 2017; Acts 2021, No. 46, §1; Acts 2022, No. 52, §1.