Senate Environmental, Natural Resources & Energy Committee Meeting Official Minutes 149th General Assembly Second Session

Committee Meeting Wednesday May 9th, 2018 1:00 p.m. Senate Chamber Meeting Room

Meeting Attendance

Committee Members: Present: Senator Harris McDowell [email protected] 302-744-4147 Senator [email protected] 302-744-4138 Senator [email protected] 302-744-4163 Senator [email protected] 302-744-4136 Senator [email protected] 302-744-4144

Staff: Anthony Bernadzikowski [email protected] 302-744-4269

Attendees: Organization: Phone:

Sean Looney Comcast 410-458-6337 C.S. Kidner Horsey and Sons Bobby Horsey Horsey and Sons 302-542-8071 Andrew Slater Division of the Public Advocate 302-241-2550 Jerry Platt PSC 302-736-7526

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Matt Hartigan PSC 302-736-7532 Sam Hemphill PSC 302-736-7552 Stephanie Herron Sierra Club 302-468-4550 Rob Underwood DNREC 302-735-8489 Bonnie Metz Verizon

Agenda:

Senator McDowell brought the meeting to order at 1:05 pm. He then called for a motion to accept the minutes of the previous meeting on May 2nd, 2018. The motion was seconded and received unanimous approval from members of the committee.

SB 189 (McDowell) – AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 26 OF THE CODE RELATING TO THE UNDERGROUND UTILITY AND SAFETY ACT. SYNOPSIS: The U.S. Department of Transportation has recently found Delaware to be non-compliant with enforcement of underground excavation violations. This jeopardizes federal funding for the Commission’s pipeline safety program. Two principal reasons for this have been the lack of notification to State agencies and the lack of enforcement when damage is known. This bill updates Title 26, Chapter 8 by ensuring notification of excavation damage to the appropriate State agencies for potential penalties or other enforcement proceedings. It provides that either the Attorney General or the Public Service Commission may enforce penalties appropriate for the circumstances and gravity of the violation.

Sen. McDowell called on Mr. Matt Hartigan to testify on behalf of SB 189.

Mr. Hartigan explained the necessity of the bill: that the State of Delaware received an “inadequate” rating by the U.S. Department of Transportation that may jeopardize federal funding.

Sen. McDowell asked for any questions from members of the committee.

Sen. Hocker expressed his concern that a developer or contractor may have to make three calls to do their work if this bill is made into law.

Mr. Hartigan said that this is not the intention of the bill – that the developer or contractor is required to instead call the operator of the line if a line is damaged, and that the operator of the line will make any subsequent calls to authorities (AG’s office, etc.).

Sen. Hocker expressed his belief that the bill should be reworded to clarify this.

Sen. McDowell asked for Mr. Hartigan to clarify if the Attorney General’s office had been involved with underground utilities in this capacity before the creation of this bill. Mr. Hartigan clarified that they had not been.

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Sen. McDowell then asked if anyone was able to testify from the companies that run cables underground. Mr. Sean Looney of Comcast rose to speak.

Mr. Looney mentioned that Maryland had a miss utility law that had to be amended and used it as a comparison for the law being proposed in SB 189. He said that the stakeholders needed to decide when it was appropriate for people to be notified about digging disruptions and what the consequences would be as per enforcement. He said he wanted a strong law in place, but one that makes sense. He clarified that “making sense” in this case would be the law not putting undue burdens on smaller contractors.

Mr. Hartigan requested that the bill be passed out of committee that day, but expressed his willingness to meet with cable companies to alter the language.

Sen. Hocker said that he was reluctant to release something that needed a lot of work.

Ms. Samantha Hemphill of the PSC mentioned that most stakeholders involved seemed comfortable with taking the 3-week JFC break to figure out the language together.

Ms. Bonnie Metz of Verizon reiterated the concerns of Comcast and expressed her belief that the powers of the bill are too broad – and asked that the bill be held in committee.

Mr. C.S. Kidner of Horsey and Sons Contracting pointed to lines 94 to 109 of the bill and the language dictating “excavators”. He expressed his worry that penalties may be passed onto contractors unnecessarily.

Mr. Hartigan said that he did not understand Mr. Kidner’s point.

Mr. Kidner expressed his general view that the language in the bill was simply not clear enough.

Sen. McDowell proposed that the bill be let out of committee but not signed, hoping that the stakeholders could in a good-faith effort meet to make adjustments to the bill.

Sen. Hocker expressed some skepticism of this strategy.

Sen. McDowell asked for a call for agreement from all parties involved. Those from PSC and Comcast agreed to this. A motion was called to let the bill out (with a “hold”), and the bill was released unanimously.

Sen. McDowell adjourned the meeting.

Meeting minutes prepared by Anthony Bernadzikowski.

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