AUGUST 11 IS NATIONAL 811 DAY AND SERVES AS AN IMPORTANT REMINDER FOR NEW JERSEY RESIDENTS TO ALWAYS CALL 811 BEFORE DIGGING

Wall, N.J. – As August 11 approaches, New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) reminds New Jersey residents to keep themselves and their communities safe by calling 811 prior to the start of any digging project to have their underground public utility lines marked. Every few minutes an underground utility line is damaged because someone decided to dig without first calling 811.

All digging projects, no matter how small or large, require a call to 811. In fact, the most common homeowner projects that result in damage to underground utility lines are installing or replacing a fence or mailbox, building a deck, planting or removing a tree or shrub, laying a patio and repaving the driveway. Striking a single line can cause injury, loss of essential service (such as 911), inconvenient outages, fines and damage and repair costs.

In recognition of National 811 Day, NJNG invites residents to learn more about safe digging practices at its annual Dig Safely Fair on Thursday, August 11, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at The Home Depot in Brick Township, 1722 Route 88. Representatives from NJNG will be on hand to educate attendees and answer questions about how to dig safely around natural gas facilities, identify a natural gas leak and keep property and communities safe.

“On August 11 and throughout the year, we encourage whoever is digging to always use safe digging practices. Making the call to 811 first is required by New Jersey law and is an important step to keeping our employees and communities safe from harm,” said John Wyckoff, vice president of Energy Delivery at New Jersey Natural Gas.

When calling 811, homeowners and excavators are connected to New Jersey One Call, which notifies the appropriate underground utility operators of their intent to dig. Professional locators will arrive at the site of the digging project to mark the approximate locations of all underground utility lines with flags, spray paint or both — all at no cost to the customer. Yellow paint and flags indicate a natural gas line.

The depth of utility lines can vary due to such things as soil erosion, regrading for landscaping, previous digging projects and uneven surfaces. Utility lines need to be properly marked due to the risk of striking an underground utility line when digging a few inches. NJNG encourages homeowners to take the following steps before beginning to dig:

Always call 811 at least three, but not more than 10, business days prior digging, regardless of the depth of the dig or your familiarity with the property.

• Before digging, confirm the markout has taken place. Yellow paint and flags indicate the presence of underground natural gas lines.
• Respect all markings. Take a photo of the markout because inclement weather may wash away painted markings. Maintain the marks until no longer necessary and move the location of your project if it is near utility line markings.
• Dig with care and respect the tolerance zone – remember to always use hand tools to dig within two feet of the outer wall of the marked utility lines and expose the utility lines prior to using mechanized equipment. Natural gas service lines can look and feel like a tree root, and easily be severed by a shovel or post hole digger.
• Download the New Jersey One Call App to manage requests as well as access resources and instructional videos easily and quickly easily and quickly. The app is available in the App Store for Apple and Android devices.

For more information about 811 and safe digging practices, visit nj1-call.org or the My Safety section of njng.com. In the event of damage to a natural gas pipeline, immediately relocate to a safe location and call 911 followed by a call to NJNG at 800-GAS-LEAK (427-5325).

About New Jersey Resources

New Jersey Resources (NYSE: NJR) is a Fortune 1000 company that, through its subsidiaries, provides safe and reliable natural gas and clean energy services, including transportation, distribution, asset management and home services. NJR is composed of five primary businesses:

• New Jersey Natural Gas, NJR’s principal subsidiary, operates and maintains over 7,600 miles of natural gas transportation and distribution infrastructure to serve over 568,000 customers in New Jersey’s Monmouth, Ocean and parts of Morris, Middlesex and Burlington counties.
• Clean Energy Ventures invests in, owns and operates solar projects with a total capacity of more than 370 megawatts, providing residential and commercial customers with low-carbon solutions.
• Energy Services manages a diversified portfolio of natural gas transportation and storage assets and provides physical natural gas services and customized energy solutions to its customers across North America.
• Storage and Transportation serves customers from local distributors and producers to electric generators and wholesale marketers through its ownership of Leaf River and the Adelphia Gateway Pipeline Project, as well as our 50% equity ownership in the Steckman Ridge natural gas storage facility.
• Home Services provides service contracts as well as heating, central air conditioning, water heaters, standby generators, solar and other indoor and outdoor comfort products to residential homes throughout New Jersey.

NJR and its over 1,200 employees are committed to helping customers save energy and money by promoting conservation and encouraging efficiency through Conserve to Preserve® and initiatives such as The SAVEGREEN Project® and The Sunlight Advantage®.

For more information about NJR:
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