How a simple land-clearing project in Texas became a matter of life, death—and luck
A prominent businessman in Decatur, Texas, James Wood has a passion for wide open spaces.
Wood is a car dealer by trade, but also farms about 3,500 acres in the area and buys, improves and sells property. “I’ve always loved land,” Wood says.
In resource-rich Texas, that land is crisscrossed by a staggering amount of underground oil and gas infrastructure. Enbridge operates over 4,000 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines in the North Texas area alone, including some on Wood’s properties.
“There are lines everywhere,” Wood says, “and there’s no way of telling that there’s not anything under the ground that you’re about to disturb unless you call (or click before you dig).”
Calling 811 (U.S.) or clicking before you dig (U.S. and Canada) allows you to get underground utilities, including pipelines, located so that you can work safely around them. It’s a fast, free service paid for by utility companies to protect the public while digging or carrying out any work that disturbs the ground—including clearing activities, which can move underground roots and disturb buried infrastructure.
Today, on National 811 Day in the United States, Enbridge is working hard with companies in the energy, pipelines and utilities sectors to remind homeowners and professional excavators of the importance of always calling 811 before digging.
Had the contractor working on Wood's property called or clicked before beginning his project, Enbridge representatives would have marked a natural gas pipeline at the bottom of a nearby rain-soaked wash and alerted him to the danger of moving equipment across the softened soil near the pipeline.
But the contractor did not call.
While the operator drove the bulldozer across the wash, the heavy machinery slid down the embankment—saturated from historic rains—until it struck the buried pipeline, gashing a hole that spewed natural gas as the bulldozer’s engine continued to run.
Fortunately for the contractor, the same wet conditions that caused the accident saved his life.
“Because the ground was moist, the debris that was scattered out did not ignite,” explains Danny Bull, senior manager of Enbridge’s North Texas District. “Luckily, no injuries were involved in this incident, but it could have been much worse.”
Wood was alarmed by news of the incident. “It could have been a catastrophe,” he says. Since then, Wood has become a firm believer in having underground lines located before projects, making sure anyone working on his property has called or clicked before they begin.
“Anything we’re doing, whether we know the people or not, we need to be responsible for them,” Wood says. “What it would do to a family if a person got killed would be drastic, and I wouldn’t want it to happen on my place.”
As Wood learned, calling or clicking before digging is a simple process and it's always the safest option anytime someone plans to move earth or disturb soil. While it takes just minutes, calling or clicking results in a damage-free project 99 percent of the time, so those working don’t have to leave their safety up to mere luck.
“Life is very precious,” Wood says. “In the 78 years that I’ve been living, every day is better and you don’t want to lose any of it. And you certainly don’t want to lose your life.”
