Do I need to call before I dig on my BC property?
Ask BC 1 Call for a free locate at least three working days before you dig, even for a fence post; its members mark their lines, not the ones you own.
Opens the lot's report at this answer. If an address isn't found, try the PID, the 9-digit parcel number on the land title or assessment notice.
What the answer means
Gas, power, phone and cable lines and many councils' water and sewer pipes run under BC lots, often where nothing on the ground shows them. BC 1 Call passes a locate request to the companies and councils that are its members, free; each answers with a map, marks on the ground or instructions. Lines the owner owns aren't theirs to find.
- When to ask
- BC 1 Call asks for a request before any outdoor project that breaks ground, big or small: fence, mailbox and sign posts, decks, retaining walls, patios and fire pits, playground anchors, planting a tree or digging a garden, heating a driveway and clearing a sewer line (its homeowner page). A request is free, online at any hour or by phone on weekdays, 1-800-474-6886.
- How long it takes and lasts
- Members answer within three working days, five for a large project. You aren't clear to dig until every member notified has answered, and BC 1 Call doesn't confirm that for you. Digging must start within 14 days of the request; once it has, the ticket holds for 30 days from the request, and some members want it renewed sooner (its homeowner page and FAQ).
- What a member gives you
- A member may send a site plan of its lines on or near the lot, send someone to mark them on the ground, or give digging instructions; follow them. FortisBC sends a map of its gas line on the lot as an estimate, and asks you to dig by hand within one metre of where it's shown, with no power equipment that close (its homeowner digging page). BC 1 Call asks you to hand dig to expose a line before heavy digging.
- Pipelines
- Building a road or driveway across a pipeline, or digging deeper than 30 cm (or cultivating deeper than 45 cm) within 30 m of one, needs the pipeline permit holder's written agreement or the Regulator's order; digging at least 10 m from the pipe needs only a call to BC One Call first, and confirmation from each permit holder it names that the pipe is at least 10 m away. (Pipeline Crossings Regulation ss. 1 to 3)
- At work
- Anyone excavating or drilling with powered equipment as work must first find every underground utility in the area accurately and control the danger, dig as the line's owner requires, never probe for gas or electrical lines with a pointed tool, and run the machine so as not to damage them (OHS Regulation s. 20.79). That binds the contractor you hire; a homeowner digging by hand is under BC 1 Call's and the owner's instructions instead (our reading).
- What a locate won't find
- Members don't locate lines on private property that they didn't put in: BC 1 Call calls them secondary or house lines, laid by a developer or owner, and says a private locating contractor can find them. On a house or rural lot that most often means power to a shop or well pump, the well's water line, septic pipes and the field, irrigation and a gas line past the meter to a barbecue or heater (our reading); ask the seller where they run, and look for drawings in the septic filing and the well record. Lines of a utility that isn't a member need a call of their own.
- If you hit a line
- Stop, shut off the machine and move away. For gas, call FortisBC's emergency line, 1-800-663-9911, or 911; keep 10 m from a downed power line and call the utility (FortisBC's homeowner page). FortisBC warns that hitting a line can mean costly repairs; who pays is between the line's owner and whoever dug (our reading).
- What it means for a buyer
- A report names the power lines and pipelines on the Province's and OpenStreetMap's maps near the lot, and rights of way drawn on its plans, but not the service lines to the house: a locate before the first fence post or garden bed shows those, and a right of way on title says what you may build over a line (our reading).
Our summary of BC 1 Call's homeowner page and FAQ, FortisBC's digging safety page for homeowners, WorkSafeBC's OHS Regulation s. 20.79 and the Pipeline Crossings Regulation (ss. 1 to 3, read 2026-10-07), read 2026-10-22. Each line's owner decides how near you may dig.
Sources (read 2026-10-22; summarised in our own words unless noted): Homeowners, BC 1 Call; Excavator FAQ, BC 1 Call; Digging safety for homeowners, FortisBC; OHS Regulation Part 20, s. 20.79, WorkSafeBC; Pipeline Crossings Regulation, B.C. Reg. 147/2012, ss. 1 to 3 (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-07).
Before you buy: who to ask
- The seller or their agent
- Where do the lines you own run: power to outbuildings or the well pump, the well's water line, the septic pipes and field, irrigation, gas past the meter? Are there drawings?
- BC 1 Call
- Before the first post or bed goes in, which members have lines here, and have they all answered?
- Your lawyer or notary
- Is a right of way for a line registered on the title, and what does it let me build or plant over it?
Look up the lot above: its report gives the nearest power line and pipeline on the Province's and OpenStreetMap's maps, and the rights of way drawn on its plans.
See also pipelines, power lines, rights of way, fences, septic and drilling a new well.