Use of BC 1 Call Can Keep Drinking Water Infrastructure Safe

SIDNEY – BC 1 Call is urging all local governments to include calling BC 1 Call’s emergency locate request line as part of safety messaging and announcements directed at those involved in emergency flood mitigation and cleanup efforts in order to avoid damage to critical drinking water infrastructure.  

Flood-Related Activities that Warrant a BC 1 Call Locate Request 

• Digging drainage ditches
• Cleaning up drainage ditches
• Dragging heavy equipment or structures to higher ground

Use of BC 1 Call every time you plan to break ground can prevent avoidable damage  – even in emergencies. BC 1 Call members will expedite the provision of instructions for safe digging around assets when the emergency locate request line is used. 

Please Make Use of Our Sample Safety Messaging 

• If you are trenching or breaking ground to protect from floods, please call BC 1 Call at 1-800-474-6886 to make an emergency locate request.
• Avoid damage to critical drinking water infrastructure. Request a free emergency locate before breaking ground by calling BC 1 Call at 1-800-474-6886.
• If your flood and disaster cleanup work includes digging and cleaning drainage ditches and dragging heavy equipment, please call BC 1 Call to place an emergency locate request at 1-800-474-6886.

Note that of our 366 members, 113 are local governments, representing 70 per cent of all local governments. According to our 2021 member survey, 92 per cent of respondents said that BC 1 Call membership was an important component of their underground infrastructure damage prevention strategy; 88 per cent said that membership is important for their community outreach communications. 54 per cent of respondents were local and regional governments.

How Local Governments Can Continue to Keep Drinking Water Safe

• Track and address root causes of underground infrastructure damage incidents.
• Consider establishing or re-enforcing your internal policy requiring BC 1 Call use among excavating employees and contractors. 

Not An Emergency?

In order to free our agents up to focus on emergency calls, if a locate request can wait three business days, locate requests can be placed online at bc1c.ca.
BC 1 Call BC Floods Information