Skip to content
All questions

Who do I call before digging?

Call 811 first. It is free, it is required in every state, and it puts member operators on notice to come mark their own lines on the ground, usually a few business days out. Nothing on this page substitutes for that call. What ParcelOps can do beforehand is show what the public record holds nearby: mapped hazardous liquid and gas transmission lines with their operators, the county’s reported pipeline mileage, and in California and Colorado the state well records including plugged, idle, and orphaned wells.

Mapped transmission lines and state well records near a point. Distribution mains, service laterals, and private lines are not mapped publicly.

Where this answer comes from.

Each of these has its own page naming the office that publishes it, how often it updates, and what it cannot answer. Rebuilt from the ParcelOps source directory on September 9, 2026.

Would answer this, not connected yet.

These sit in the same part of the ParcelOps directory and are not live, so they add nothing to the answer above today. They are named because a page that hides the unfinished half of itself is the thing this whole family is arguing against: FCC Broadband Availability.

Where this stops.

The part a search result will not tell you, and the part worth reading before this answer goes into a decision.

  • The lines most often struck are the ones no public map carries: service laterals, irrigation, private electric, septic, and abandoned pipe left in place.
  • A locate ticket has legal weight and creates a record. A screen has neither.
  • Gathering lines in producing areas are regulated differently from transmission and are mapped inconsistently or not at all.

What people ask next.

I can see a pipeline marker in the yard. Do I still need to call?

Yes. A marker shows that a line is somewhere in the vicinity, not where it is, and depth is never marked. Markers also survive lines that were rerouted and go missing on lines that were not. The locate is what produces paint and flags at the actual alignment, and it is what protects you if something goes wrong.

Does the mapped line on screen tell me where to dig safely?

No. The public transmission layer is deliberately generalized, and the operator’s own alignment sheets are the record that governs. Treat a mapped line as a reason to expect a locate to find something and to plan the work around it, never as a measurement.

Questions people ask alongside this one.

The lanes this question belongs to.

A lane page lists every source that kind of work reads, not only the ones behind this question, and states where the whole lane stops.

Run it on a property you already know.

The free plan includes 50 tool calls for the life of the account. They never expire and never refill, and there is no credit card. Ask this question about an address whose answer you can check.