PREPARED
REMARKS
U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY RODNEY E. SLATER
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES DAMAGE PREVENTION SYMPOSIUM
WASHINGTON, D.C
JUNE 30, 1999
On behalf of President Clinton and the U.S. Department of Transportation, I am delighted to formally accept Common Ground’s study on Best Practices for ‘One-Call’ Systems and Damage Prevention programs.
Let me begin by expressing my special thanks to Common Ground’s Steering Team for that fine summary of the Best Practices Study we just heard.
I would also like to thank the Linking Team, the 9 Task Teams and all the members of Common Ground who worked so hard on this report. I know that most of you are here today.
In addition to Kelley Coyner, DOT’s Administrator for Research and Special Programs, I would also like to thank Rich Felder, our Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety and all the members of both staffs for helping put today’s symposium together.
And let me add a special word of thanks to National Transportation Safety Board Chairman, Jim Hall -- who was here earlier.
Common Ground’s Best Practices study is an important milestone for advancing the nation’s overall transportation safety agenda. And its recommendations are an excellent example of what the President and Vice President have in mind when they call for "Common sense government."
Common Ground’s common sense safety proposals are a model of the kind of vision and vigilance the Department of Transportation seeks to encourage as we lead the way to transportation excellence in the 21st century. Implementing Common Ground’s Best Practices will also be vital to protecting the underground infrastructure of America’s emerging digital economy.
As some of you have heard me say many times, safety is President Clinton’s highest transportation priority -- and the North Star by which we are guided at the U.S. Department of Transportation. On this President’s watch, highway fatality and drunk driving fatality rates have reached record lows; seat-belt use is at an all time high. And highway-rail crossing deaths are at record-low levels. However, as impressive as these accomplishments are, the President has said, "This is not a time to rest, but a time to build."
As a matter of policy this Administration is setting very high stretch goals for safety -- goals that we know will push us to higher heights than many of us may have imagined possible.
Protecting the underground facilities that serve as the foundation of America’s communications and utility systems is no exception. Last Tuesday’s Department of Commerce Report on The Emerging Digital Economy revealed that information technology now accounts for fully 30 percent of America’s economic growth. And for much of that emerging economy the underlying infrastructure for moving information about products and services at the speed of light lies underground -- and vulnerable to disruption -- or what those in this business euphemistically call "hits."
Unfortunately, a ‘hit’ in this industry is not at all like a ‘hit’ in the recording industry.
The rest of the economy also depends upon our underground facilities for the delivery of vital services and products. Damage to these systems can cause loss of life -- and also loss of heat, loss of fuel, loss of electricity, loss of water, as well as loss of telephone and television service. Even Air Traffic Control can be affected.
We can, we must -- and we will -- take strong measures to prevent such damage.
Until a few weeks ago our pipeline safety goal had been to reduce hits by 5 percent over the next three years. Given the growing importance of underground facilities to our economy, that ’s not good enough. Our new goal is five times higher than that: Over the next 3 years we are now committed to reducing the number of pipeline hits by 25 percent.
The kind of "hit" chart we want for this industry is a record-level decline in the number of incidents. Today’s Best Practices report will make a major difference in helping us to reach this stretch target.
This morning you heard each of the nine Task Team Reports on specific Best Practices. But I believe that this study is far more than a report on the best ways to go about preventing damage to our nation’s pipelines and other underground utilities. The study itself is a sterling example of the best practice of all -- working together.
Last August, the U.S. Department of Transportation reached out to the entire underground facility community to help us strengthen One Call Notification Systems, as called for under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.
We asked for your help in finding the next best steps to prevent damage to the underground infrastructure of our nation’s economy. And you responded with enthusiasm. Every stakeholder agreed to participate in this important project. These diverse groups put aside their differences and demonstrated that sharing responsibility is the key to success. Underground damage prevention is a promise we make and keep together.
Now that we have a Best Practices report, what do we do with it?
First, we can use the new Damage Prevention Grant Program under TEA-21 to help communities strengthen all aspects of their One-Call operations and programs. Damage Prevention grants can be specifically allocated to projects suggested by the Best Practices report.
This year we will award some $1 million in damage prevention grants. For next year, TEA-21 authorizes up to $5 million for the grant program.
But the true key to implementing these Best Practices is to make sure that every business or agency engaged in digging knows about them. Safe digging is everyone’s responsibility.
It is now my great pleasure to ask our Administrator for Research and Special Programs, Kelley Coyner, to join me at the lectern as we officially inaugurate our new national campaign to teach America to Dig Safely.
This is a great theme. And the other materials supporting this theme poster are just as good. For the past three years the Damage Prevention Quality Action Team within our Office of Pipeline Safety has been working on this campaign with our private sector and state government partners, including the state One Call Centers. We’ve also received a lot of help from professional excavators, and the telecommunications and insurance industries.
What we wanted was a high-quality damage prevention campaign that could be put in place anywhere with a minimum of effort. And that’s what we’ve got.
As you can see, our Campaign Theme is "Dig Safely." We’ve developed materials for use in all kinds of media outlets: public service announcements, radio, trade press ads, bill inserts, public relations events, promotional materials. We’ve also produced a first-class training video.
Our Safety Message is simple:
1. Call before you dig.
2. Wait the required time before you start to dig.
3. Observe the marks indicating the location of underground facilities.
4. Dig with care.
We pilot-tested this campaign in Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee last year. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive–and very encouraging. There was a measurable increase in compliance with all four of these rules in all three test states. The Gas Division of the Virginia State Corporation Commission reported that the number of hits on gas lines dropped 10 percent during the course of the pilot test. And North Carolina One Call -- which was not even part of the pilot test -- has already asked for permission to use these campaign materials at their own expense.
I think we have a real winner here. The next step is for the Research and Special Programs Administration and its industry partners to hold regional public meetings to share these materials and to train interested parties in how to use them effectively.
And another way our private sector partners can help is by forming local coalitions to fund TV promotional spots.
Today I am also pleased to announce our intention to carry out the Senate Appropriation Subcommittee on Transportation’s directive to support the formation and operation of a non-profit organization that will further the work of Common Ground. We will provide the resources and leadership that will transform Common Ground into the firm foundation for advancing underground damage prevention efforts in all American communities.
But the future success of Common Ground will depend, just as it has so far, on shared participation, shared responsibility -- and shared financial support.
So I am challenging our private sector partners here today to help us co-fund Common Ground as a self-sustaining, financially-viable entity to help this country protect our vital national underground infrastructure. You and I have the privilege to be working in the transportation field at the beginning of a new era in technology -- an era that makes our pipelines and other underground infrastructure more important than ever before.
We also have the opportunity to secure the underground foundation for America’s economic success in a new century and a new millennium.
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