Public utilities are defined as those owned by large utility providers and include the mass distribution network of services such as sanitation, water, gas, electricity, and communication which connect us together. This includes connecting us to our cities, homes, and places of work. These utilities are considered publicly managed and owned up to a cut off point otherwise known as a “demarcation point”, which is usually situated on the outside of a house, building, property, or in maintenance and mechanical rooms. The cut off or “demarcation point” is usually identified by a metering system, transformer or vault. Utilities that continue after the demarcation point are owned by the property owner and considered private utilities. Private utilities may include:
- Lights or signs on the property
- Buried storage tanks and lines, including fuel tanks and water discharge tanks
- Electrical lines going out to sheds or secondary buildings
- Sewer and septic tanks, systems and piping
- Security cameras
- Automatic gates, parking kiosks
- Gas lines to bbq or pool heaters
Keeping Employees safe is very important when it comes to the working in the unknown. Its often very hard to understand the dangers of excavating and drilling when the hazards are buried beneath your feet. Imagine if you could easily see Ontario’s underground world, to expose how thousands of kilometers of unseen water, oil, electric, sewage and telecommunication infrastructure was keeping businesses and homes connected with data, power, heat, water, sanitation and communications. Ontario One Call can help to identify registered underground services in the area, except they do not identify and mark privately owned services. Landshark Locates will identify and mark the existence of private utilities such as water, gas, electrical, and communications on your work site to prevent injury to workers and damages caused by a utility hit.