A Federally Regulated Pipeline Runs Near Your Yard: Whose Consent You Need Before You Dig, Build or Drive Across It

A pool, a fence line, a shed, a regraded lawn and a new driveway each meet the federal pipeline rules at a different point. Here is where each one lands, and what the pipeline company must give you before work starts.

I’m Arthur Zhao, a Toronto real estate Broker. Picture a homeowner who has finally saved up for an in-ground pool this summer. The pool company has a design, an excavator booking and a spot picked out on one side of the backyard. On the far side of the same yard, a buried interprovincial pipeline crosses the lot. The pool would not sit on top of the line, so the homeowner assumes it is somebody else’s concern.

Under federal law, that assumption depends on three measurements: how far the digging reaches toward the pipe, how deep it goes, and whether anything the project needs, such as a drain line, has to cross the pipe. Below I go through the backyard projects homeowners plan and show where each one meets the rules in the Canadian Energy Regulator Act and its damage prevention regulations, then cover what happens on site after consent and which pipelines the federal rules actually reach.

In-ground pools and other large excavations

A pool dig is the clearest case. Any part of the excavation that lands within 30 m on either side of the pipe’s centreline and goes deeper than 30 cm is a ground disturbance in the prescribed area (SOR/2016-124 s. 2 and the Act’s s. 2 definition). Under s. 10(1), that dig is authorized only if you obtain the pipeline company’s written consent, make a locate request under s. 3, and receive the company’s written safety practices and pipe markings.

Two details catch pool projects. First, the 30 m strip is measured from the centreline of the pipe, not from your lot line, so the pool’s position in the yard, not which side of the yard it is on, is what counts. Second, the pool needs supporting work: a drain or drainage line, an electrical trench, a pathway. The regulation’s list of facilities includes a drain and a drainage system. If any of that work has to run across, on, along or under the pipeline, it is construction of a facility under s. 7(1), which carries the same three conditions whatever the distance from the pool itself.

And the excavator is restricted even after consent: see the box below.

Fence posts, footings and anything set into the ground

A fence feels like a surface project, but the post holes are what matter. A post hole deeper than 30 cm within the 30 m strip is outside the shallow-work exception in the Act’s s. 2 definition, so it is a ground disturbance that needs consent, a locate request and the company’s information under s. 10(1).

The regulation itself shows that posts are treated seriously. Section 13 lets farm vehicles cross a pipeline without separate consent when performing an agricultural activity, but s. 13(2) expressly excludes from that term the placement of footings, foundations, pilings or posts, including fence posts. The same caution applies to deck footings, pergola posts and sign posts. If the fence line itself runs across or along the pipe, it may also count as a structure built across or along the pipeline; the regulation’s facility definition opens with any structure and does not carve out fences.

Sheds, decks, retaining walls and other structures

For structures, the question is location over the pipe, not the 30 m strip. Section 335(1) of the Act prohibits constructing a facility across, on, along or under a pipeline unless the construction is authorized by the orders or regulations and done in accordance with them. Under SOR/2016-124 s. 7(1), authorization requires the company’s written consent, a locate request, and the company’s safety and marking information.

A shed set beside the line rather than on it is not caught by the facility rule, but its footings or slab excavation can still be a ground disturbance if they are within 30 m and deeper than the exception. A structure that is built over the pipe without authorization carries a further consequence: under s. 335(3), the Commission may order the owner to do what it considers necessary for the pipeline’s safety and, if it considers the structure may impair that safety, to reconstruct, alter or remove it.

Ownership also brings continuing duties. Under s. 8 of the regulation, the owner of a facility across, on, along or under a pipeline must keep it in good repair compatible with the pipeline’s safety, correct deterioration once the company notifies them in writing, notify the company in writing before abandoning or removing it, and remove or alter any part that could adversely affect the pipeline’s safe operation.

Garden beds, tilling, tree planting and regrading

Garden work is where the depth exceptions do the sorting. The Act’s s. 2 definition of ground disturbance leaves out cultivation to a depth of less than 45 cm, and any other activity to a depth of less than 30 cm that does not reduce the earth cover over the pipe below the cover provided when it was built.

So working an existing bed with a tiller falls on the cultivation side of the line if it stays shallower than 45 cm. Digging a hole for a tree is a different activity; if the hole goes 30 cm or deeper within the 30 m strip, the exception no longer fits. The Act does not say whether planting counts as cultivation; if you are relying on the 45 cm figure for planting, ask the pipeline company before you dig.

Regrading needs the closest look, for the reason below.

Driveways, vehicles and equipment crossing the line

Crossing has its own rule. Under s. 335(2) of the Act, nobody may operate a vehicle or mobile equipment across a pipeline unless the regulations authorize it, or unless the vehicle stays on the travelled portion of a highway or public road. For everything else, SOR/2016-124 s. 12 says the crossing is authorized if you obtain the pipeline company’s written consent. The farm-vehicle authorization in s. 13 is tied to agricultural activity, which the regulation defines as the production of crops and the raising of animals. The regulation does not mention residential projects; if the crossing is for building work rather than crops or animals, s. 13 does not apply on its terms.

That matters for the pool scenario: the excavator, the dump truck taking the soil away and the concrete truck all have to reach the dig. If their route crosses the pipe outside a public road, the crossing needs its own consent, separate from consent for the dig.

Building a new driveway is a second question. The regulation’s list of facilities includes a private road; the regulation does not define whether a residential driveway is one. If a new driveway would run across the pipe, treat it as possible facility construction under s. 7(1), and the excavation for its base as possible ground disturbance under s. 10(1).

After consent: the rules on site

Consent is not the end of the obligations. Sections 7(3) and 10(3) of SOR/2016-124 set the measures that apply while the work is under way:

• Follow the approved plan. The work must match the technical details in your request that the company accepted, plus every condition in the consent. Under SOR/2016-133 s. 3(3), the company may add or amend conditions during the work if needed for the pipeline’s safety.
• Finish within two years of the day consent was obtained, unless you and the company agree on another period and it is written in the consent.
• Follow the field representative. The company’s authorized field representative’s safety instructions bind you during the work.
• No changes to the pipe without a separate written consent; any work that touches or alters the pipe runs under the company’s supervision.
• Report any contact immediately. Contact with the pipe or its coating must be reported to the company immediately.
• Respect a suspension. If the consent is suspended, the authorization is suspended and the work must stop for that period (s. 7(2) and 10(2)).

Separately, after a locate request, the company may designate a temporary prohibition area near the pipe, which can extend beyond the 30 m strip; ground disturbance is prohibited inside it for that period (s. 5, and Act s. 335(7)).

Which pipelines are federal in the first place

None of the above applies unless the line is a pipeline as the Canadian Energy Regulator Act defines it. Section 2 defines it as a line, including branches, tanks, pumps, compressors and connected works, that connects at least two provinces or extends beyond the limits of a province and is used to transmit oil, gas or any other commodity. The same definition excludes a sewer or water pipeline used solely for municipal purposes.

So the test is the line’s route, not its size or what it carries. A line that does not cross a provincial or national border is outside this definition; the federal rules in this article do not cover it, and I am not covering whatever other rules may apply to it here. If you are not sure which kind of line crosses your property, the locate system is built to answer that: a one-call centre notifies its members that may be affected by your work (SOR/2016-124 s. 3(4)), and a federally regulated company that receives your request must mark its pipes and explain the markings (SOR/2016-133 s. 6(1)). The regulation’s one-call system works through Ontario’s pre-dig locate service (see the related article): where such a centre exists, a federally regulated pipeline company must be a member of it (SOR/2016-133 s. 2), and your locate request goes there (SOR/2016-124 s. 3(1)).

Your pipeline-project checklist

Two stages: what to settle before you ask, and what to keep doing once the crew is on site.