Department of Public Service Staff have developed a White Paper, submitted in Case 18-M-0777 (White Paper), to identify various issues related to the implementation of the Act. Consistent with the Act’s text, the White Paper, proposes that the term “excavators” include the owners of excavation companies. The White Paper proposes that (1) operators that perform excavation work and (2) excavators who contract with operators or local governments to perform excavation work must complete the training and education program.

With respect to grandfathering individuals who have already completed One-Call Notification training, the White Paper proposes the following:

1. Entities who submit their curriculum as part of their comments on the White Paper will be treated as having submitted a request for approval of that curriculum.

2. Entities who seek grandfathered status for their trained workers who have previously completed Part 753 training should submit their training curriculum in response to the White Paper by March 17, 2019.

3. Those individuals who have already been trained in One-Call practices will be grandfathered for five years provided that (a) the organization that trained them includes its Part 753 training curriculum in its comments on the White Paper and (b) the submitted training curriculum is not inconsistent with the criteria in the Appendix to the White Paper.

4. Those entities who submitted a training curriculum that is inconsistent with the criteria in the Appendix to the White Paper, shall have one year to retrain individuals, commencing from the date of a Commission order approving 16 NYCRR Part 753 training with any required modifications, which will specify the additions each deficient curriculum submitted must include.

Going forward, other groups that currently do not have a training curriculum, but would like to be approved to provide One-Call training, should adopt the Staff-proposed curriculum outline, which is included in the Appendix to the White Paper, and seek Commission approval to train in One-Call practices according to that curriculum either through the White Paper process described above or through individual petitions for training approval.

The Commission also seeks comments on recommendations concerning enforcement of the Act’s directives on a prospective basis.

The full text of the White Paper may be reviewed online under Case No. 18-M-0777 at the Department of Public Service web page: www.dps.ny.gov. The Commission may adopt, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the action proposed and may resolve related matters.

Statements and analyses are not submitted with this notice because the proposed rule is within the definition contained in section 102(2)(a)(ii) of the State Administrative Procedure Act.

(18-M-0777SP1)