374:48 Definitions. –
In this subdivision:
I. "Commission" means the public utilities commission.
II. [Repealed.]
II-a. "Department" means the department of energy.
III. "Excavate", "excavating", or "excavation" means any operation conducted on private property or in a public way, right-of-way, easement, public street, or other public place, in which earth, rock, or other material in the ground is moved, removed, or otherwise displaced by means of any tools, equipment, or explosive, and includes but is not limited to drilling, grading, boring, milling, trenching, tunneling, scraping, tree and root removal, cable or pipe plowing, fence or sign post installation, pile driving, wrecking, razing, rending, or moving any structure or mass material, but does not include the tilling of soil for agricultural purposes, landscaping and maintenance of residential property performed with non-mechanized equipment, landscaping activities performed with mechanized equipment that are intended to cut vegetation, including lawn edging, aeration, and de-thatching, excavations permitted or grandfathered under RSA 155-E, or replacement of department-of-transportation-installed delineator posts in the same location.
IV. "Excavator" means any person performing excavation.
IV-a. "Operator" means any public utility as defined by RSA 362:2 or RSA 362:4, any cable television system as defined by RSA 53-C:1, and any liquefied petroleum gas company operating any jurisdictional facility or facilities as defined by the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act (49 U.S.C. chapter 601) that owns or operates underground facilities.
V. "Person" means any individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, United States government or any agency thereof, political subdivision of the state, or any interstate body.
VI. "System" means the underground facility damage prevention system referred to in RSA 374:49.
VII. "Underground facility" or "facility" means any property which is buried, placed below ground, or submerged on a public way, private property, right-of-way, easement, public street, or other public place and is being used or will be used for the conveyance of cable television, electricity, gas, sewerage, steam, telecommunications, or water.
VIII. "Blasting" means excavation by means of explosives.
Source. 1983, 294:1. 1997, 298:3-5, 15. 1999, 289:13. 2001, 186:1, 2. 2007, 25:4, 5, eff. May 11, 2007. 2010, 191:3, eff. Aug. 20, 2010. 2021, 91:274, eff. July 1, 2021.