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SoCal Edison warns NDAs, liability complicate inserting 811 centers as intermediaries
Summary
Southern California Edison told the Underground Safety Board that routing sensitive design data through a regional notification center changes custody and liability under NDAs; the company said an intermediary would need tailored agreements and statutory clarity before centers could host sensitive files.
Southern California Edison told the Underground Safety Board that inserting a third-party intermediary such as a regional notification center into a planning-and-design information exchange alters custody, control and legal liability for confidential data.
"An NDA between a utility owner operator and a requestor assumes direct controlled information exchange. That assumption breaks down when a third-party intermediary like an 811 notification center is inserted," said Dorothy Bergman of Southern California Edison. Bergman said intermediaries are typically routing services rather than recipients of confidential data and that existing legal frameworks can conflict with NDA obligations.
Bergman recommended that a regional notification center can sign an NDA only if it has legal capacity and the agreement is tailored to the center’s role. "NDAs are typically designed for parties that receive, use, and benefit from the confidential information, but an 811 center does not use the data for decision-making," she said, adding that custody and liability change when a pass-through intermediary becomes a holder of records.
Other participants recommended a decentralized approach in which the RNC issues a planning-design request but utilities provide targeted asset data directly (via API or other automated query) to the requester. That model, participants said, preserves utility control of sensitive information while allowing rapid responses.
The board did not adopt policy at the workshop; staff said they will consider these legal and operational inputs as they draft regulations under Government Code 4216.1.
