FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to  revise certain requirements and procedures regarding the one-call notification system for excavation activities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
     Section  1.  That subdivision (3) of § 49-7A-1 be amended to read as follows:

             (3)      "Excavation," any operation in which earth, rock, or other material in or on the ground is moved or otherwise displaced by means of tools, equipment, or explosives, and includes grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, augering, tunneling, scraping, and cable or pipe plowing or driving, except tilling of soil and gardening to a depth of twelve inches and the tilling of soil for agricultural purposes to a depth of eighteen inches, maintenance grading or reconstructing of an existing public road and ditch maintenance that if the maintenance grading or reconstructing does not extend below eighteen twelve inches of original roadgrade or ditch flowline within the road right-of-way , digging in a cemetery, or digging in a planned sanitary landfill;

     Section  2.  That § 49-7A-5 be amended to read as follows:
     49-7A-5.   No excavator may begin any excavation without first notifying the one-call

notification center of the proposed excavation. The excavator shall give notice by telephone , facsimile, in person, or by other methods approved by the board pursuant to rules promulgated pursuant to chapter 1-26 to the one-call notification center at least forty-eight hours prior to the commencement of the excavation, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays of the state , but not more than ten business days prior to any excavation . The board may promulgate rules to reduce the forty-eight-hour interval for emergency or subsequent inquiries to the original locate request and may lengthen the forty-eight-hour interval for nonexcavation requests.
     Section  3.  That § 49-7A-27 be amended to read as follows:
     49-7A-27.   The board shall accept the recommendations of the panel unless either party requests a hearing. The A party requests a hearing by rejecting the panel's recommendation within twenty days from the date of service of the notice. However, the board may extend the time period for requesting a hearing. Failure to request a hearing is considered acceptance of the panel's recommendation. If a hearing is held, the hearing shall be conducted before the board as a contested case under chapter 1-26. Following the hearing, the board shall either render a decision dismissing the complaint for insufficient evidence or shall impose a penalty pursuant to the provisions of § 49-7A-18 or 49-7A-19.