Section 62-14-5 - Marking of facilities.
62-14-5. Marking of facilities.
A. Every person owning or operating an underground facility shall, upon the request of a person intending to commence an excavation and upon advance notice, locate and mark on the surface the actual horizontal location, within twelve inches by some means of location, of the underground facilities in or near the area of the excavation so as to enable the person engaged in excavation work to locate the facilities in advance of and during the excavation work.
B. If the owner or operator of the underground facility finds he has no underground facilities in the proposed area of excavation, the owner or operator shall contact the appropriate one-call notification center or mark in the appropriate color code as specified in Section 62-14-5.1 NMSA 1978 the area as "Clear" or "No Underground Facilities". If the area is not marked as "Clear" or "No Underground Facilities", the excavator shall contact the one-call notification system operating in the intended excavation area or the owners or operators of any existing underground facility in and near the excavation area that are not members of the local one-call notification center in order to verify the area as "Clear" or "No Underground Facilities".
C. If the owner or operator fails to correctly mark the underground facility after being given advance notice and such failure to correctly mark the facility results in additional costs to the person doing the excavating, then the owner or operator shall reimburse the person engaging in the excavation for the reasonable costs incurred.
D. An owner of an underground facility shall not move or obliterate markings made pursuant to Chapter 62, Article 14 NMSA 1978 or fabricate markings in an unmarked location for the purpose of concealing or avoiding liability for a violation of or noncompliance with the provisions of Chapter 62, Article 14 NMSA 1978.