April is Safe Digging Month but damage prevention professionals work all year long to keep people and places safe.

Williams employees recently gathered with representatives from other companies in the Pacific Northwest to share ideas and best practices to educate landowners about the need to contact 811 for line location before any digging or tilling activities.

It’s especially important for farmers and ranchers to call 811. Farm equipment is getting more powerful and can dig deeper. At the same time, erosion and terrain modifications can reduce the soil covering an underground pipeline.

That’s why it’s critical to contact 811 before plowing, ditching, fencing, installing drain tile, clearing land or other excavation type activities, said Colby Seely, a damage prevention specialist for Williams’ Northwest Pipeline. It’s also the law.

Williams notifies landowners of this obligation through public mailers, face-to-face meetings, digital ads and emails.

Williams’ customers and peer companies also have outreach plans so collaborating on best practices made perfect sense, Seely said.

In March, Williams partnered with utility company Avista to hold the first annual Pacific Northwest Damage Prevention Summit at Avista’s offices in Spokane, Washington, which drew 36 attendees from 11 companies.

It took months of planning but was a big success, said Camilo Amezquita, VP and GM of Williams’ Northwest Pipeline.

“Significant progress has been made with the realization that Williams, our customers and our pipeline energy peers in the Pacific Northwest are all dedicated with efforts to prevent damage with most of that work being done independently of each other,” he said.

Seely said the summit aimed to foster networking, share challenges and solutions, discuss best practices and explore shared opportunities. 

“The theme was to discover ways that we could be more effective together than on our own,” he said.

Carie Mourin, Avista’s manager of Natural Gas Pipeline Integrity and Compliance, agreed.

“Collaboration allows us to pool our resources and leverage each other’s audiences, enabling us to share our message to the ag community more broadly and effectively,” she said.

Mourin said the cooperation continues through a dedicated communications channel for attendees to post about events and outreach efforts, along with new ideas to educate the public.

Farming accidents involving pipelines and utilities occur nearly three times every day, according to FarmSafe811.org.

Calling 811 is a free service that ensures public safety and prevents outages or financial penalties that may occur if a line is damaged.