Before you dig, call JULIE

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. (WAND) — April is National Safe Digging Month, and officials want to remind community members that it's important to contact a local excavator before they decide to dig .

JULIE, or Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators, is a free Illinois service that helps to prevent any underground utility line damage. It's also a message handling service that can help notify the proper utility companies to come and mark your desired areas.

When excavators come to mark your property, they can been seen using a variety of colors, which help them determine what's beneath the surface.

"Every utility has a color believe it or not. Yellow being gas, natural gas, petroleum pipelines. Red would be electricity. Water would be blue. Green would be sewer. Communications would be orange, that would be your cable TV, the phone lines that you talk on," explained JULIE's Damage Prevention Manager Brian MacKenzie.

It's important to contact JULIE, so that you can ensure where you're digging is safe.

"You won't be safe. You won't know where the utility facilities are buried on your property. You won't know exactly where you can safely dig or not to dig. You want to be cautious of putting plants and bushes and things over utilities," said Mackenzie.

To learn more about the new laws implemented regarding digging, click here.

To learn more about JULIE, or to make a request, call 811 or click here.