Whereas, the underground facilities protection law affects activities that take place primarily during the building season, which occurs during spring, summer and autumn; and

Whereas, enactment without emergency designation will result in revisions becoming effective after a significant portion of the building season is over; and

Whereas, the Public Utilities Commission is in receipt of a grant to educate the public regarding the requirements of the law and will do so most effectively if the education occurs in the early months of the building season; and

Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 23 MRSA §3360-A, sub-§1, ¶C, as amended by PL 1997, c. 631, §1, is further amended to read:

C. "Excavation" means any operation in which earth, rock or other material below the ground is moved or otherwise displaced, by means of power tools, power equipment or explosives and including grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, augering, tunneling, scraping and cable or pipe driving, except tilling of soil and gardening or displacement of earth, rock or other material for agricultural purposes, and except installation and maintenance of signs performed by the Department of Transportation.

Sec. 2. 23 MRSA §3360-A, sub-§1, ¶¶D-1 and D-2 are enacted to read:

D-1.__"Primary locating end point" means the point at which the underground facility emerges from the ground before the meter or the point at which the underground facility enters a building in which the meter is housed.

D-2.__"Shoulder-grading activity" means highway maintenance work that involves the use of a motorgrader on the shoulder of a road to remove accumulated surficial sand, gravel or