Rule 18.B. If a company, while performing inspections of its facilities, discovers a safety hazard on or near a utility facility involving another company, the inspecting company shall notify the other company and/or facility owner of such safety hazard(s) no later than 10 business days after the discovery. To the extent that the inspecting company cannot determine the facility owner/operator, it shall contact the pole owner(s), who shall be responsible for promptly notifying the company owning/operating the facility with the safety hazard(s), normally not to exceed five business days after being notified of the safety hazard. The notification shall be documented and such documentation must be preserved by all parties for at least ten years. Note: Each pole owner must be able to determine all other pole owners on poles it owns. Each pole owner must be able to determine all authorized entities that attach equipment on its portion of a pole. Setting aside the use of the term in the previously “nonconformance” identified provisions in Rule 18, no party in this proceeding suggests that the previously identified provisions adversely affect safety or reliability. For the preceding reasons, and for the additional reasons set forth in Section 8 of today’s order, we conclude that it is in the public interest to open a rulemaking proceeding to consider the elimination of Rule 18 or, alternatively, consider the following amendments to Rule 18: Eliminate the provisions in Rule 18 that allow utilities to defer or forgo the remediation of facilities that pose a risk to safety and/or reliability. Replace the term in Rule 18 with the “nonconformance” term or violation.” “violation” “potential
Rule 18.B. If a company, while performing inspections of its facilities, discovers a safety hazard on or near a utility facility involving another company, the inspecting company shall notify the other company and/or facility owner of such safety hazard(s) no later than 10 business days after the discovery. To the extent that the inspecting company cannot determine the facility owner/operator, it shall contact the pole owner(s), who shall be responsible for promptly notifying the company owning/operating the facility with the safety hazard(s), normally not to exceed five business days after being notified of the safety hazard. The notification shall be documented and such documentation must be preserved by all parties for at least ten years. Note: Each pole owner must be able to determine all other pole owners on poles it owns. Each pole owner must be able to determine all authorized entities that attach equipment on its portion of a pole. Setting aside the use of the term “nonconformance” in the previously identified provisions in Rule 18, no party in this proceeding suggests that the previously identified provisions adversely affect safety or reliability. For the preceding reasons, and for the additional reasons set forth in Section 8 of today’s order, we conclude that it is in the public interest to open a rulemaking proceeding to consider the elimination of Rule 18 or, alternatively, consider the following amendments to Rule 18: Eliminate the provisions in Rule 18 that allow utilities to defer or forgo the remediation of facilities that pose a risk to safety and/or reliability. Replace the term “nonconformance” in Rule 18 with the term “violation” or “potential violation.”
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