NU-SAF-110 — ELECTRICAL SAFETY & HDD STRIKE PROTOCOL

Tier 2/3 — Procedure + Field Card · Rev 1.0 DRAFT — awaiting Adam approval · Owner: Field Supervisor Parent: NU-SAF-100 §5. Supersedes: NU-SAF-100 §7 interim electrical & strike rules (that section retires when this issues). Field-card layer: HDD Operator book Card 16 (strike sequence), Card 2 (strike protection), Card 13 (frac-out), and NU-FLD-220 phase cards carry the short version the crew works from. This document is the program behind those cards. The cards and this SOP say the same thing on purpose. If any of them ever disagree, the most protective wording wins and the conflict goes to the Supervisor the same day.

THE GATE

No ground rod, no mat, no gloves, no armed strike alert — the pilot bit does not turn. And if the rig ever becomes energized: the operator STAYS ON THE MACHINE, everyone else gets 35 feet back, and nobody walks — feet together, shuffle.

The first half of that gate produces a record (§10): the strike protection photo before every pilot bore. The second half is the one play every hand on a Nova crew has to know cold, because there is no time to look it up.

1. WHY THE GROUND ITSELF CAN KILL YOU (step potential, in plain English)

When a drill head hits an energized line, the electricity doesn't stop at the machine. It flows through the drill string, through the rig, and out into the earth — and it spreads through the ground in rings, like ripples when a rock hits a pond.

• The voltage is highest right at the machine and drops off ring by ring as you move away. Picture a bullseye painted on the ground with the rig in the center. Every ring is a different voltage.
• Your body doesn't care about voltage. It cares about voltage DIFFERENCE. A bird sits on a power line and lives because both feet are at the same voltage. Nothing flows through it.
• A normal walking stride is about three feet. Near an energized rig, that stride puts your front foot on one ring and your back foot on another — two different voltages, and your legs are now the wire connecting them. Current flows up one leg and down the other. That is step potential, and it is why the guy who calmly walks away from an energized rig is the guy who dies, while the operator sitting on the machine is fine.
• Feet together, there is no difference. Both feet on the same ring, nothing flows. That is the entire trick: shuffle without letting your feet separate, or hop with both feet together. It looks stupid. Do it anyway.
• Touch potential is the same math sideways. Stand on the ground and touch the machine, and your arm-to-feet path bridges the machine's voltage to the ground's voltage. That is why nobody touches the machine, the drill string, the mud system, the tracker gear connected to it — or the operator.

Why it matters: strikes are survivable. Almost every HDD electrocution death is somebody doing a normal human thing — stepping off to see the damage, walking over to help, grabbing the operator's arm. The play in §3 exists to override those instincts.

2. STRIKE PROTECTION — EVERY BORE, NO EXCEPTIONS

There is no bore too short, no yard too residential, and no locate too fresh to skip this. Locates are wrong, maps are old, and abandoned-but-live lines exist. Setup detail lives on HDD Operator book Card 2 — this is the standard behind it:

2.1 Dielectric glove care (29 CFR 1926.97)

• Inspect before each day's use and immediately after anything that could have damaged them. Look for cuts, cracks, punctures, swelling, anything embedded in the rubber.
• Air test with every inspection — roll the cuff, trap air, squeeze, listen and feel for leaks. Thirty seconds, every morning they're used.
• Electrical retest every 6 months by a test lab, per 1926.97. The test date is stamped or tagged on the glove. Out-of-date gloves are failed gloves.
• A failed glove gets cut so it can't be "borrowed back," and its replacement gets ordered the same day.
• Leather protectors over the rubber whenever the gloves are worn — 1926.97 requires it. A rubber glove used without its protector goes back for electrical retest before reuse. Rubber does the insulating; leather keeps the rubber alive.
• Glove voltage class for Nova's work: [Adam: confirm class with supplier — see §11].

2.2 What this section does NOT cover

Locate tickets, locate verification, potholing the crossings, and the tolerance zone are the damage-prevention layer — NU-FLD-200 ch. 4 and NU-FLD-220 Phases 0–1 own that. This document starts where prevention has already failed.

3. THE STRIKE PLAY — ELECTRIC

This is the same play as HDD Operator book Card 16 and NU-FLD-220. Every hand knows it, not just the operator — because most of the play is about what everyone ELSE does.

1. Operator: STAY ON THE MACHINE. Do not step off. Do not touch the machine and the ground at the same time. On the machine you are the bird on the wire — you are safest exactly where you are.
2. Everyone else: get 35 feet back. Feet together — shuffle or hop, never stride. Count it off. 35 feet is roughly the length of a Nova truck and trailer.
3. Nobody touches the machine, the drill string, the mud system, anything connected to the rig — or the operator. Not a hand, not a tool, not a rope. The rescuer who grabs the operator becomes the second victim.
4. One caller: 911 → utility → Supervisor → Owner. One person makes all the calls so the story stays straight — road name, nearest address, "drill rig in contact with an electric line, utility unknown, no one injured / injuries," and stays on the line.
5. Hold the perimeter. The NU-SAF-105 work zone becomes a keep-out line. Neighbors and passers-by will walk straight toward the interesting machine. Wave them back from 35 feet — do not walk toward them to do it.
6. The operator leaves the machine for ONE reason only: fire. If the machine is burning, jump clear — both feet together, landing without ever touching machine and ground at the same time — then shuffle or hop away, feet together, past the 35-foot line.
7. Nobody moves back in until the utility on scene confirms the line is dead (§7). Not when the humming stops. Not when the lights come back on down the street. Lines re-energize themselves — automatic reclosers slam power back on without warning, more than once.

4. THE STRIKE PLAY — GAS

A gas hit is the opposite instinct: the machine is not your friend, and neither is anything with a spark in it.

1. Engines OFF. The rig, the trucks, the mud pump, the generator, the hydrovac — every engine on site, immediately. A running engine is an ignition source sitting in a gas cloud. [Adam: NU-SAF-100 §7 says no engines shut off; this SOP says engines off — pick one; recommendation: shut down equipment only if it can be done without re-entering the release, then leave]
2. No ignition sources. Nobody smokes, nobody starts a vehicle, nobody flips a switch, nobody makes the call standing next to the hole.
3. Get upwind and uphill, everyone — at least 300 feet (carried from NU-SAF-100 §7). Gas travels downwind and settles low. Uphill and upwind is the clean air.
4. One caller, FROM A DISTANCE: 911 → utility → Supervisor → Owner — same one-caller rule as §3, made from upwind and uphill, well clear of the release.
5. Do not try to stop the leak, crimp the line, or bury it. That is the gas company's job, in their gear.
6. Hold the perimeter from a distance and keep the public and traffic away — including stopping cars from driving through the release.

Know gas from frac-out. Drilling fluid surfacing is a frac-out — that play is HDD Operator book Card 13, and it is an environmental problem, not an explosion problem. Gas is hissing, blowing dirt, bubbling in the mud pit, or the smell of rotten eggs — and some transmission gas has no odor at all. If you cannot tell which one you have, run the gas play. Nobody was ever hurt by treating mud like gas.

Electric signs and gas signs at the same time: electric governs the operator — he stays on the machine; gas governs everyone else — upwind, uphill, back, and nobody returns toward the rig to shut anything down.

5. HOW YOU KNOW YOU HIT ELECTRIC

Any ONE of these means you run §3 now — you do not investigate first:

• The strike alert alarms.
• A bang, a flash, smoke, or arcing anywhere on the rig, the string, or the ground.
• Power drops in the houses or streetlights around you.
• Popping, buzzing, or humming from the bore path or the machine.
• Any tingling felt through the controls or the ground — that one means it is already flowing.

When in doubt, it's live. Run the play, make the calls, and let the utility prove you wrong. A false alarm costs twenty minutes.

6. OVERHEAD LINES

The strike everyone plans for is underground. The one that happens in seconds is a mini-ex boom, a dump gate, or a rod being tipped up into a line overhead.

• 10 feet minimum from any overhead line up to 50kV. That is the OSHA line for cranes and derricks (29 CFR 1926.1408, Table A) and for other equipment in operation (29 CFR 1926.600(a)(6)). Above 50kV the distance grows — 15 ft up to 200kV, 20 ft up to 350kV, and more beyond (1926.1408 Table A); treat anything above 50kV as a stop-and-call.
• You cannot judge 10 feet by eye from a machine seat. If there is any argument about the distance, it is too close. Get a spotter or get the line covered/de-energized by the utility.
• A dedicated spotter, and nothing else in his hands, whenever equipment could reach within 10 feet of a line — the spotter's only job is the gap. Same rule as backing: the machine does not move without him. [Adam: add an overhead-line-clearance line to B-SPOTTER (NU-QAL-601-A) / NU-SAF-116 before this duty gets cited to the badge]
• Distribution voltages on Nova's typical streets vary, and line height is not a voltage rating. [Confirm working clearances and identification guidance with GA Power — flag carried forward from NU-SAF-100, still open.]
• Rod handling, mast raising, dump trailers, and mini-ex travel height get checked against overheads during setup — it goes on the JSA like any other hazard.

7. DOWNED LINES

• Every downed line is live until the utility says otherwise. A line lying quiet in the grass looks exactly like a line carrying 7,200 volts. Reclosers will also re-energize a "dead" line automatically, without warning.
• 35 feet back, minimum — same distance, same feet-together movement if you are already close.
• Never touch it, never move it with a stick, a rod, or a shovel handle, never drive over it. Wood, fiberglass, and rubber tires are not the insulation you think they are at line voltage.
• Line on a vehicle or machine: the person on it stays on it — same bird-on-the-wire math as §3 — drives clear if the machine can move, and jumps clear feet-together only for fire.
• One caller: 911 → utility → Supervisor → Owner. Hold the perimeter until the utility arrives.

8. RESET & RE-APPROACH — WHO SAYS GO, AND WHEN

This is where strikes turn into second strikes. The rules:

1. Nobody self-clears. Ever. Not the operator, not the Crew Lead, not the Supervisor by phone. The quiet machine and the dark line prove nothing.
2. The utility confirms de-energized — on scene, or in writing. A named utility representative either says it standing at the machine, or Nova has it in writing (email or ticket note from the utility) before anyone crosses the 35-foot line. A phone call with no name and no writing is not confirmation.
3. The Supervisor authorizes re-approach after the utility confirmation exists — and the confirmation (who, when, how) goes on the incident record.
4. The machine gets inspected before it runs again. A strike can cook wiring, controls, and grounding connections. The operator and Supervisor walk it; anything doubtful gets the mechanic before the key turns.
5. Every contact gets reported to the utility — including a nick that "did no harm." A nicked jacket is a future outage with Nova's name on it, and Georgia's damage law requires notifying the facility owner. Honest same-day reporting is cheap; a discovered cover-up is not survivable. The Owner gets the call the same day. [Adam: owner-call threshold is FLD-220 Open Item #4 — HDD book says call on ANY contact, Daily Loop says damage only; this SOP inherits whichever you pick]
6. Every contact gets an incident record per NU-SAF-121, same day, near-miss or not.

9. FIELD CARD (Tier 3 — print, laminate, truck)

This card matches HDD Operator book Card 16 and NU-FLD-220. Steps only.

BEFORE EVERY BORE

1. Ground rod driven and connected.
2. Mat down at the operator station.
3. Dielectric gloves on — inspected + air tested today, test date in date.
4. Strike alert armed + self-tested.
5. Photo of all four → app. No photo, no pilot.

STRIKE — ELECTRIC

1. Operator: STAY ON THE MACHINE.
2. Everyone else: 35 FEET BACK — feet together, shuffle or hop. Never stride.
3. Touch nothing — not the machine, not the string, not the operator.
4. One caller: 911 → utility → Supervisor → Owner.
5. Hold the perimeter. Wave the public back from distance.
6. Operator leaves only for fire: jump clear feet together, never machine + ground at once, shuffle away.
7. Nobody back in until the utility confirms dead and the Supervisor says go.

STRIKE — GAS

1. ALL ENGINES OFF. [Adam: see §4 step 1 flag — engines off vs NU-SAF-100 §7 no-shutoff; pick one]
2. No ignition sources — no smoking, no starting, no switches, no phones at the hole.
3. Everyone upwind and uphill — at least 300 feet.
4. One caller, from a distance: 911 → utility → Supervisor → Owner.
5. Don't touch the leak. Hold the perimeter. Keep cars out.

DOWNED LINE

1. It's live. 35 feet back, feet together.
2. Touch nothing, drive over nothing.
3. One caller: 911 → utility → Supervisor → Owner. Hold until the utility arrives.

10. PROOF & RECORDS (what has to exist when this is done right)

Every gate above lands as a record. A gate that produces no record is a suggestion.

Accountability tie-in (NU-PPL-403) — proposed, pending Adam ratifying into 403: boring without the §2 strike protection in place or without the photo = Class C (6 pts). Crossing the 35-foot line before utility confirmation + Supervisor go = Class C, repeat = Final. Glove out of test date and used anyway = Class B. A contact honestly reported the same day = zero points for the report itself, ever — the points are for skipping the protection, never for telling the truth.

DONE WHEN

• Every rig carries the §9 card laminated, and Card 16 / NU-FLD-220 all match it.
• Every bore in the app has a strike protection photo in front of it.
• All dielectric gloves on all three rigs are in test date, and the 6-month retest is on a calendar with an owner.
• Every current hand — not just operators — has physically walked the §3 play at a rig (engine off) and shuffled the 35 feet once, and every new hire does it inside the Day 1–2 book window.
• The GA Power clearance flag from NU-SAF-100 is closed.

NEVER

• Never step off an energized machine — except fire, and then only by jumping clear, feet together.
• Never walk near an energized rig. Shuffle. Strides kill.
• Never touch the machine, the string, or the operator during an electric strike.
• Never bore without the ground rod, the mat, the gloves, and an armed, tested strike alert. Not for a 40-foot shot, not because the locates are fresh.
• Never leave an engine running on a gas hit, and never make the call standing at the hole.
• Never assume a downed line is dead, and never trust it to stay dead — reclosers re-energize without warning.
• Never self-clear a strike. Utility confirms, Supervisor authorizes — in that order, every time.
• Never sit on a contact. A nick reported today is a phone call; a nick discovered later is a lawsuit.

11. WHAT THIS DOCUMENT NEEDS FROM ADAM

1. Inventory check, all three rigs: does each rig actually have a ground rod kit, an insulating mat, dielectric gloves, and a working strike alert system on it today? Make, model, and voltage rating of each strike alert system: [Adam: fill].
2. Glove voltage class and test vendor. Confirm with the supplier what class gloves Nova's exposure requires, name the test lab, and put the 6-month retest on a calendar with an owner (recommend: Office, alongside the NU-SAF-124 matrix when it's built).
3. Close the GA Power flag carried from NU-SAF-100 — one call to confirm overhead clearance guidance and how crews should identify line voltages on typical Nova streets.
4. Ratify the proposed point classes in §10 into NU-PPL-403 so the enforcement is real, not implied.
5. Schedule the walk-through drill: every current crew physically runs the §3 play at a parked rig within 30 days, logged as a toolbox talk. Cheap, memorable, and it is the difference between a card someone read and a play someone has done.
6. One-time wording check: confirm HDD Operator book Card 16, NU-FLD-220, and NU-SAF-100 §6 Rule 5 match §9 exactly — including the call order and the gas engines rule — so there is one strike play in the company, not three near-copies.

NU-SAF-110 · Rev 1.0 DRAFT · Nova Underground · Parent: NU-SAF-100 · Supersedes: NU-SAF-100 §7 interim rules · Field-card layer: HDD Operator book Card 16 + NU-FLD-220 · Uncontrolled when printed.