CenturyLink Investigated For Ignoring Marking Requests

Call before you dig!  The safety message has been marketed so well that I think it's ingrained in just about everyone's head.  But what happens if you call and no one comes?

That's the heart of the investigations being carried out by officials with the State of Minnesota as they look into why CenturyLink didn't respond to customers calls for underground utility marking.  News sources show that the telecommunications company is facing more than $780,000 in fines tied to the action (or lack thereof).

Property owners are bound by state law to call utility companies prior to doing any digging on their parcel.  That call can be placed either to individual utilities - or, to a clearing-house agency like Gopher State One Call - which synchronizes the actions of multiple utility companies.  The law also binds those utility companies to respond to those requests in a timely fashion.

To contact Gopher State One Call by telephone, simply dial 811.