Good new for those civic-minded folks aching to do a little more shoveling this winter—HRM Halifax Water has provided a way to locate the blocked catch basins and fire hydrants in your neighbourhood.
During last winter's snowpocalypse, helpful citizens wanted to dig out buried hydrants and clear obstructed catch basins in an unprecedented show of civic pride. But Halifax Water refused to make public a map showing hydrant locations because terrorists.
“We’re not going to give people ideas of how you can potentially sabotage the systems,” spokesperson James Campbell told CBC at the time. “We’re not going to identify for anybody where any of our critical infrastructure is.”
Instead, crews worked 24 hours a day for 10 weeks straight in the small window between extreme storms to clear drains and critical hydrants, along with sidewalks and roads. Those noble efforts helped Winter Operations spend more than $10 million over its budget.
With this new map, Halifax Water appears to have changed its mind. Any HRM resident (or terrorist) can now search through street addresses to find nearby catch basins and fire hydrants on the utility’s interactive site.
That’s about all you can do, though. The terms of use forbid anyone from copying, modifying or creating any derivative works from the map. Also, no one can distribute or publicly display any content obtained from this public map of public infrastructure without prior written consent.
So, posting that image at the top of this article might be illegal. Sorry?
Any damaged, clogged or obstructed hydrants and catch basins can be reported directly to Halifax Water’s customer service line (902-490-4820). Catch basin clogs can be reported to HRM by dialling 311.
Winter will officially begin on December 22, and last until June.
UPDATE: As noted below, HRM is the one responsible for clearing catch basins. Halifax Water is responsible for damaged or tampered-with catch basins, and keeping hydrants clear.
