Grant Piraine
Feb 12, 2026
The Legal Reality of Ground Disturbance on Private Property
Ground disturbance near buried utility infrastructure carries legal, financial, and safety consequences that are often underestimated on private property. This risk is greatest on private property, where regulatory clarity often stops at the edge of the public right of way or demarcation point.
NAPUA exists to address this gap.
Across North America, laws, regulations, and enforcement frameworks are heavily focused on publicly owned utility infrastructure and One Call or 811 systems. These systems were never designed to manage the vast and complex network of privately owned buried facilities that exist beneath commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential properties.
This creates a dangerous misconception that if a One Call ticket is cleared, a site is safe. From a legal and risk perspective, that assumption is often incorrect.
Public Infrastructure Is Regulated. Private Infrastructure Is Not Exempt.
At both the federal and regional levels, most damage prevention legislation explicitly governs publicly owned facilities. Examples include energy transmission, telecommunications, pipelines, and municipal services.
These laws typically require:
Notification to a One Call or 811 system
Response by public utility owners
Compliance with defined locate standards
Safe ground disturbance practices within prescribed tolerances
However, these same laws often do not extend to privately owned buried infrastructure located on private property.
This does not mean private infrastructure is unregulated. It means responsibility shifts to those performing or authorizing the work.
The Legal Gap on Private Property
In many states, provinces, and territories, legislation becomes vague or silent once ground disturbance moves onto private land and involves privately owned facilities.
In some jurisdictions, broader occupational health and safety laws apply generically to all work activities. In others, damage prevention obligations are implied rather than explicitly stated. In some regions, there is little direct statutory guidance at all.
What is consistent across all jurisdictions is this principle:
The absence of specific legislation does not remove legal responsibility.
Understanding Your Legal Obligations Without Legal Advice
NAPUA does not provide legal advice.
What NAPUA does provide is a professional framework that recognizes the following best practice:
Every organization involved in ground disturbance should determine what laws, regulations, and standards apply in their country, state, province, or municipality
If specific damage prevention legislation applies, it should be followed
If legislation is unclear or silent, organizations should default to recognized industry standards and the principle of due diligence
This is not optional risk management. It is a foundational legal expectation in most common law systems.
Due Diligence Applies Everywhere
When explicit rules do not exist, courts and regulators consistently fall back on duty of care and due diligence.
Due diligence generally requires that a reasonable and competent professional would take steps to:
Anticipate foreseeable hazards
Take proactive steps to identify buried facilities
Use qualified personnel and appropriate methods
Follow recognized industry practices
Document decisions and limitations
Stop or modify work when risks cannot be adequately controlled
Failing to locate or consider private buried facilities does not eliminate liability. It often increases it.
Why Best Practices Matter More on Private Property
On public infrastructure, compliance is often defined by statute. On private property, compliance is defined by behavior.
This is where best practices become critical. Courts, insurers, investigators, and regulators routinely ask:
What steps were taken to identify buried facilities?
Were qualified professionals engaged?
Were limitations understood and addressed?
Were recognized standards followed?
Was the risk foreseeable and preventable?
NAPUA Best Practices exist to answer those questions clearly and defensibly.
NAPUA Provides the Missing Framework
NAPUA was created to address what public damage prevention systems do not.
Specifically, NAPUA provides:
A unified best practices framework for private property ground disturbance.
Clear guidance that applies regardless of jurisdictional gaps.
Training that explains roles, responsibilities, and limitations.
Standards that support due diligence, not just compliance.
A governance driven approach aligned with insurers, asset owners, contractors, and locators.
NAPUA does not replace laws. It complements them where they exist and fills the void where they do not.
The Reality of Enforcement
Most private property damages do not result in regulatory fines unless an injury or fatality occurs. Instead, consequences typically arise through:
Civil litigation
Insurance claims and subrogation
Contract disputes
Project delays
Reputational damage
Personal liability for supervisors and decision makers
In these cases, the issue is rarely whether a law explicitly applied. It is whether reasonable steps were taken.
Why This Matters Now
As infrastructure ages, privately owned buried facilities are becoming more complex, undocumented, and higher risk. At the same time, modern positioning technology has advanced to the point where accurately documenting private buried infrastructure is no longer cost prohibitive.
High quality GPS and geodetic coordinate collection now provide private asset owners with a practical and affordable way to document buried facilities
as they are installed, exposed, or upgraded. When done correctly, this significantly reduces uncertainty for future ground disturbance and limits risk to a shrinking set of legacy infrastructure.
At the same time:
Public One Call systems remain limited by mandate
Private property development continues to intensify
Insurance carriers are tightening underwriting standards
Courts are placing greater emphasis on proactive risk management
The industry cannot continue relying on systems that were never designed for private property. There is now a clear path forward to reduce and eventually eliminate damages involving private buried facilities through proper documentation, standards, and governance.
NAPUA exists to lead that transition.
Closing Perspective
Safe ground disturbance on private property is not about guessing what is below.
It is about understanding legal responsibility, recognizing risk, and applying due diligence when regulations are unclear.
That is why NAPUA matters.