Plan to dig? There’s a number for that, Southwest Gas initiative advises

For most Nevadans, Aug. 11 is just another day.

Ask Dennis Bott Jr., an administrator at Southwest Gas Corp., though, and he’ll have had it circled on his calendar for months.

“It’s like my Super Bowl,” he said Tuesday.

That’s because Aug. 11 is 811 Day, an initiative geared at reminding people to call 811 before they dig into the ground. Southwest Gas will mark this year’s date with a “Skate Knight” event on Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. at Lifeguard Arena. The free event will include ice skating and school supplies giveaways.

The goal of 811 Day is to remind people that they should always call before beginning any projects that involve digging on their property, Bott Jr. said.

When you call 811, technicians will be on site within two days to mark the areas that contain gas lines. That lets people know where it’s safe to dig, and where it’s important to avoid using major tools. Digging without knowing where gas lines are can cause gas leaks or power outages.

On Monday, technicians fielded a number of 811 calls. One involved a homeowner who wanted to plant a tree in their front lawn, so a technician scanned the area and planted small flags on a rocky spot near the house, denoting where the gas lines were. The markers will stay up for 30 days, during which the project should start.

Another call was from the water district and ran under a residential street, so technicians used yellow spray paint to mark where the gas lines were located. Spray paint on streets is organized by specific colors: yellow means gas; green means sewer; red means power; blue means water; pink refers to surveys and orange means communication infrastructure.

Anthony Dixon, a supervisor for Southwest Gas, said they receive as many as 12,000 calls for service each day. A technician typically responds to about 20 per day, but that number can fluctuate significantly based on the type of call they get.

Speaking from the Southwest Gas offices in northeast Las Vegas, Bott Jr. urged Las Vegans to make sure they call 811 whenever they’re planning to dig into a new project.

“Most people don’t understand how that utility infrastructure works,” he said. “But underground, there’s a whole network of utility infrastructure that we rely on every day.”

Contact Jonah Dylan at jdylan@reviewjournal.com. Follow @TheJonahDylan on Twitter.