Do I need to call 811 Blue Stake before digging on my Arizona property?

Arizona law requires you to notify Arizona 811, the service most people still call Blue Stake, at least two full working days before any excavation, and that includes small jobs like setting a fence post, planting a tree, or digging a footing. The call is free. You file a locate request, and each utility with buried lines on your site sends a locator to mark its gas, electric, water, sewer, and communication lines. Then you can dig around them safely. Skipping the call is not just risky, it is illegal, and hitting a line can cost up to $5,000 per violation plus the full cost of the repair.

This page covers when the rule applies, exactly how the free process works, what the law says, and who is responsible for the call on a custom home build.

When you have to call (almost always)

You must call Arizona 811 before essentially any digging, because the law covers far more than big construction. A.R.S. 40-360.21 defines excavation broadly as any operation that moves earth "by means or use of any tools, equipment or explosives," and it lists "grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, augering, boring, tunnelling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing and driving." That definition catches the homeowner with a shovel just as much as the contractor with a backhoe.

In plain terms, you call 811 before you:

• Dig footings, a foundation, or a basement for a new home or addition.
• Trench for a water line, sewer, gas, electric, or irrigation.
• Set fence posts, deck footings, or mailbox posts.
• Plant a tree or large shrub, or auger holes for a ramada or pergola.
• Install a pool, a septic system, or a propane tank.

The buried lines you are protecting are not always deep. In Arizona, gas, electric, water, and fiber can sit just a foot or two down, sometimes shallower after years of grading. A strike can mean an explosion, an electrocution, a neighborhood outage, or a five-figure repair bill. The two-working-day call removes nearly all of that risk for free, which is why the law makes it mandatory rather than optional.

How the free Blue Stake process works

The process is one free request that puts your dig site in front of every affected utility, and it takes about ten minutes to start. You contact Arizona 811 by phone (dial 811) or online at the Arizona 811 website at least two full working days before you plan to dig, not counting the day you call, weekends, or legal holidays. You describe where on the property you will dig and what kind of work it is.

Arizona 811 then notifies every member utility with lines in that area. Each one must respond within the two-full-working-day window by sending a locator to your site. The locator spray-paints or flags the ground over its buried lines, using a national color code: yellow for gas, red for electric, blue for water, green for sewer, and orange for communication and fiber. When the marks are down, you know what is buried and where.

One Arizona rule trips up homeowners after the marks appear. You are required by law to use only hand tools within two feet (24 inches) of any marked line. That hand-dig zone protects the line from a blade or auger you cannot see underground. The marks themselves are valid for fifteen working days under A.R.S. 40-360.22. If your project runs longer, you must renotify Arizona 811 at least two working days before that window ends to keep the marks valid.

The takeaway is that the whole system costs you nothing but a short wait. A free ticket and a two-day pause is cheap insurance against a gas line, and it is the law either way.

What Arizona law actually requires

Arizona's Underground Facilities Law, found at A.R.S. 40-360.21 through 40-360.32, makes the locate mandatory and sets real penalties for skipping it. The duty falls on the excavator, which the statute defines as the person actually doing the digging. Before any excavation, A.R.S. 40-360.22 requires the excavator to find out whether buried lines will be hit. The excavator must also get location information from the utilities. In practice that means filing the Arizona 811 ticket and waiting for the marks.

The penalties have teeth. The Arizona Corporation Commission, which administers the law, can fine an excavator who digs before the lines are marked up to $5,000 per violation. A utility that fails to mark its lines within the response window can be fined up to $5,000 as well. On top of any fine, whoever breaks a line is generally on the hook for the cost of repairing it, which for a gas main or fiber bundle can run into the thousands on its own.

There is also a liability shift worth understanding. If you filed your ticket properly, waited the required time, and dug carefully around the marks, and a line was still mismarked or unmarked, the responsibility moves toward the utility. If you skipped the call and hit a line, the responsibility, and the bill, lands squarely on you. Following the law is what protects you legally, not just physically.

Who is responsible on a custom home build

On a custom home, the excavator doing each dig is legally responsible for the 811 call, which on a managed build is usually your builder or the specific trade contractor, not you. The law assigns the duty to whoever turns dirt. So when your general contractor's crew digs the footings, that contractor files the ticket. When the plumber trenches the water and sewer service, the plumbing sub files its own ticket for that work. A well-run build treats the Arizona 811 ticket as a standard first step before any earthwork, on every separate dig.

That said, the duty is per-excavation, so it matters who is digging. If you decide to dig your own irrigation trench, plant trees, or set a fence after the home is done, you are now the excavator and you must file the ticket. The builder's earlier locates do not cover your later digging, and old marks expire after fifteen working days anyway. When in doubt, file your own free ticket. A locate is also different from an easement, which is the legal right that lets a utility keep lines on your land. The 811 mark tells you where a line physically sits; the easement is why it is allowed to be there. See the Blue Stake / Arizona 811 glossary entry and the easement glossary entry.

For a rural build where utilities and water lines run long distances across the parcel, the locate is even more important, since a single trench can cross several buried services. See what you need to build on rural land in Rio Verde. At Jematell Homes, an Arizona 811 ticket is a standard step before our crews or trades break ground on any custom home site, because a marked line is a line nobody hits. Penalty amounts and response rules can change, so confirm the current requirements with Arizona 811 or the Arizona Corporation Commission before you dig.

Building with Jematell Homes

We run the land due diligence before you commit to a lot. We would rather answer your questions before you build than after, so get in touch any time.

Sources

• A.R.S. 40-360.21 (Underground facilities; excavation; definitions)
• A.R.S. 40-360.22 (Excavator duties; location information; marking validity)
• Arizona Corporation Commission: Underground Facilities Law (AZ811)
• Arizona 811: Homeowners (two full working days before you dig)