electrical ground rods and code

[lquade]

somewhere on here someone mentioned how changes in the building codes were enforced hapharzardly and as an example mentioned grounding rods for electrical poles having to be in dirt, not cement. well, gee, this is puna, certainly not 8 feet of dirt, so off i went to the building dept to speak with one of the electrical inspectors. here is what he told me: the code doesnt say "dirt", it says "earth". you can put cement in the hole, but you dont have to, most people place the ground rod, then refill the hole with what came out of it. chipped up rock/lava. he said this also applied to the electrical pole itself, and that the ground rods could be in the same hole, as long as they were not touching each other. so if you used a large enough core drill, the two poles could be upright and parallel to one another. hope this info helps others putting in their poles.