OUPS

The Ohio Utility Protection Se rice is supposed to reduce the likelihood of  utility disruption.  Living on this road you have to wonder…

Looking closer you’ll find that OUPS actually doesn’t protect anything, they don’t even mark where the utilities are.  What they really are is a call center, they take calls and then they send the info to Utilities who contract with other companies to do the marking.  They also have a public education component.  No doubt you’ve heard “Call before you dig”.

Again looking further you’ll find that people should call before they dig, but they actually don’t have to.  See the law setting up this bureaucracy really has no teeth.  So if a construction company doesn’t call before they dig, no one goes to jail, maybe the utility will fine them the cost of the repair, but that may be just another expense of the job, factored in and weighed out.

Actually they don’t have to call every time they dig, there are some exceptions if they are grading less than 12 inches deep.

STATUS: FIRST DRAFT.