Farming Practices
There are 3.2 million farm operations and over 2.7 million miles of pipeline in the United States, which leads to a lot of digging over millions of miles of pipeline infrastructure. Plowing, planting, tiling, terracing, harvesting, breaking up compacted soil, trenching and post hole digging are just a few of the farming activities that take place near buried pipelines.
The pipeline industry works closely with the agriculture industry to raise awareness about the nation’s pipeline network, emergency response and excavation best practices for damage prevention – all of which are important to keeping communities safe. The Pipeline Ag Safety Alliance publishes a Farm & Ranch Excavation Guide that includes resources and information about current trends and technologies to help protect communities and buried infrastructure in America’s farmland. The Pipeline Operators for AG Safety also publishes helpful information for farmers and ranchers. Together, pipeline operators and farmers are coordinating to prevent excavation damage to underground pipelines.