Abandoned utilities clutter the subsurface but aren't on any map

When a utility line is decommissioned — an old gas main replaced by a new one on a different alignment, a copper telecom cable replaced by fiber, a water main taken out of service — the old pipe or cable is almost always left in the ground. Removing it costs $50-200 per linear foot and requires excavation permits, traffic control, and restoration. So it stays. But the records of its existence are often purged from the utility's active GIS system because it's 'no longer our asset.' Now it's invisible: not on any map, not in any database, but still physically underground. When a future project encounters it, construction stops. The crew doesn't know if it's active or abandoned, who owns it, or whether it contains hazardous material (asbestos insulation, lead pipe, residual gas). Resolution can take days to weeks as the contractor tries to track down the owner of a line that may have been abandoned 40 years ago by a company that no longer exists. There is no national standard for documenting abandoned utilities, no requirement to mark them in GIS systems, and no registry of what has been left in the ground. The subsurface right-of-way fills up with ghost infrastructure that increases the risk and cost of every future project.