# Underground electrical lines



## oldtimer

jcw said:


> A friend of mine is in the process of putting up an above ground pool. He put it awfully close(~6") to some underground electical lines. Code is 5' away and I am not going to rat him out. My question is if there is any danger to know about or is the distance simply due to allowing the electrical company access to the line if needed. What do you all think?


 It's an above ground pool, and he is only 6" from the underground line. Does that mean his underground lines are buried only 6" deep??? Maybe I misunderstand.


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## MDShunk

I guess the biggest risk there is you really don't know if they've got an insulated neutral or if they're using concentric neutral cable. Could make for an interesting barefoot experience as the splashes saturate the ground.


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## jcw

Let me be a bit clearer, where the lines were marked are about 6" away from the edge of the pool and I assume they are 5' deep. It is not a circuit that the homeowner installed. I helped him dig a french drain that was ~1' deep and didn't run into anything and was told that in the area that they burried the lines about 5' deep.


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## wildleg

jcw said:


> Let me be a bit clearer, where the lines were marked are about 6" away from the edge of the pool and I assume they are 5' deep. It is not a circuit that the homeowner installed. I helped him dig a french drain that was ~1' deep and didn't run into anything and was told that in the area that they burried the lines about 5' deep.


"they buried it 5' deep" 

yeah, I've heard that one before


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## MDShunk

jcw said:


> Let me be a bit clearer, where the lines were marked are about 6" away from the edge of the pool and I assume they are 5' deep. It is not a circuit that the homeowner installed. I helped him dig a french drain that was ~1' deep and didn't run into anything and was told that in the area that they burried the lines about 5' deep.


Question: If you hired Mexicans to dig a french drain, would it truly still be a french drain?


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## RIVETER

Any ruling has a certain amount of wiggle room as far as the absolute safety aspect. However, I would follow the rules just to be extra safe, but that's just me. We hear all the time about leakage of current from unknown places and he is placing a pool closer to an electrical line than maybe he is supposed to. You have said that you are not going to rat him out anyway...why would you want to make us all accomplices in the decision?


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## jcw

I'm asking you all to get involved since if there is a major issue I would encourage him to move it at the end of the year. My concern is mostly with the safty of his kids....not the city.


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## nitro71

Is this a NEC code or a local code?


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## jcw

local code...i am a mechanical engineer and not sure what a NEC is. Sorry but that is why I'm leaning on experts like you guys. Thanks for the response Nitro 71.


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## s.kelly

MDShunk said:


> Question: If you hired Mexicans to dig a french drain, would it truly still be a french drain?


what if I do it myself? working on one for my garage, I am not French at all, nor mexican, should I call it something else? I think you raise an important question:thumbsup:


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## nitro71

I wouldn't even worry about POCO lines 5' down in the ground near my pool. Can't see how it could hurt anything.


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## den

We always buried our hv lines at 4' and we havn't used open concentric for 30 years. I don't think this would be an issue. If this was a long run there might be a possability of a ground rod in the immediate vacinity and if there was a fault it might "tickle"


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## HAND

What the heck is a "POCO"?
Well around here they showed up (the monopoly utility) and had their way on the property, they buried their lines because "since that new building was constructed we better give you a radial line otherwise you're going to have a lot of outages" unquote.
I said up yours but they did it anyway.
Now every time they switch source and is not phased right the underground explosions are huge, I told my neighbors to send them to hell but they got their way.
Once they are in the property is like fre%&ing hell to get them out.


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## HAND

There is a section on clearances and pools in the code, any recent year


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## HAND

Like everything else people in government are just unconciouly stupid and could not care less about you or me.
We have an airport near by and they got themselves a cannon to keep the birds away, they fire the piece of crap all the time.
I guess they got happy with the thing and started firing it at three o'clock in the morning.
I think the neighbors got together and told them hey stupid, birds don't fly at night, are you shooting batman out of the runway?


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## oldtimer

HAND said:


> Like everything else people in government are just unconciouly stupid and could not care less about you or me.
> We have an airport near by and they got themselves a cannon to keep the birds away, they fire the piece of crap all the time.
> I guess they got happy with the thing and started firing it at three o'clock in the morning.
> I think the neighbors got together and told them hey stupid, birds don't fly at night, are you shooting batman out of the runway?


 Maybe they think,the modern birds are radar equipped.:jester:


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