Standard Color Codes

When you find paint, flags or stakes to indicate the presence of a buried facility, according to NYS law the color of the marker should correspond with the following:

Red	Electric
Yellow	Gas / Oil / Steam
Orange	Communications / CATV
Blue	Water
Green	Sewer
Pink	Survey Markings
White	Proposed Excavation

Tip:Avoid starting an excavation until you have confirmed all notified utilities have either responded to or cleared the worksite. The presence of some orange markings does NOT mean all of the telephone lines have been located... there may be more than one telephone company (i.e. long distance and fiber carriers, etc.), the locator may not have finished marking, or some unknowing individual may have arbitrarily painted something with that color.

[ more info on this topic... ]

Tip:Excavators can help the utilities and their crews by marking up the worksite with white paint prior to requesting the stake-out, to indicate exactly where the dig will take place. Always avoid using colors that could be confused with the utility markings above... white works fine and there will be no doubt that they are your marks.