CBC reporter discusses 5-year quest to get fire hydrant data

Fire hydrants are no mystery, really. There’s one every 150 metres along our streets in Halifax.

But even though all of Halifax’s 8,100-odd fire hydrants are sitting in plain sight, the bigger picture is a closely-guarded secret… one that I’ve been trying to crack for more than five years.

It all started with a whim, and a chance at an easy story. Back in 2009, I was training in data-driven reporting. (It sounds fancy, but it’s really just reporters looking in computer records for story ideas.)

My first effort looked at all the parking tickets issued in Halifax over a five-year period: This is the type of geeky-but-cool story that came of it.

One of my teachers suggested a quick-and-dirty project to sharpen my skills further. So, I requested a map of fire hydrants and the water-pressure tests that go with them. Then, I would make an online map where citizens could check the performance of their neighbourhood fire hydrant.

Five years later, I still don’t have the map, but I do have a tale about the twisted paths of Nova Scotia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPOP).

No map for you!

FOIPOP supposedly ensures citzens’ right to access government records. It presumes that all records are public by default, and includes a bunch of exceptions to protect the ones that legitimately need to remain private.

I filed my freedom of information request for the fire hydrant map on Nov. 5, 2009.

Freedom of information is a confidential process. FOIPOP administrators are supposed to keep the identity of the applicant secret from the bureaucrats providing the documents. So, I was more than a little surprised when I got a phone call from Carl Yates, Halifax Water's general manager, asking me why I was requesting fire hydrant data, and what kind of story I was working on.

It turns out Yates was also Halifax Water’s freedom of information administrator. It’s a perfectly-legitimate setup, but it seems to be an unusual double duty for the head of a large and complex organization, if you ask me.

Yates asked me if I was looking into the performance of any particular hydrants during any particular fires — which would be a much better story. (If only I had a hot tip!) I declined to answer Yates' question, because freedom of information applicants aren’t required to explain their motives.

Halifax Water turned me down on Nov. 30, 2009. The hydrant map and water-pressure tests were exempt, they claimed, to protect the security of vital public infrastructure.

My town, my rules

Not every city worries about the public seeing maps of fire hydrants. Boston has a smartphone app and map that lets you adopt a neighbourhood hydrant for snow clearance. Brampton, Ont. posts its fire hydrant map online. Washington, D.C. lets you download the coordinates for its hydrants.

Hamilton, Ont. sent me a zip file of not just a fire hydrant map, but pressure tests, roughly 48 hours after I asked to see them. It just took a phone call, no official request was required.

Nova Scotia’s freedom of information legislation has a built-in review process. I requested a review of Halifax Water’s decision, but the review office had a serious backlog.

For 4.5 years, I heard nothing. 

Then, I started getting phone calls last summer from Jason Mighton, an investigator at the Nova Scotia Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Review Office. It was his job to help clear the backlog. He started preparing an opinion on my request.

Mighton sent a letter to Halifax Water in mid-January. In a nutshell, Mighton says the utility has failed to show a map of fire hydrants and the associated water-pressure tests would endanger infrastructure or hinder efforts to prevent sabotage or terrorism.

Surprise!

Yesterday, I removed my presumed ‘mask of anonymity’ and told Halifax Water spokesperson James Campbell that I was the applicant behind the fire hydrant request. In a TV interview, he wouldn’t elaborate on the nature of the possible threat against water system that could be triggered by a fire hydrant map, but an email CBC News received last week from the freedom of information review office had a few more details.

Halifax Water’s “continued position is that release of the information could be used to facilitate an act of terror or public harm; the most explicit connection they made is that the water supply to consumable water and the hydrant supply is the same, so access to one is access to both. They also had a more technical argument, and claimed that someone with an engineering background could formulate a hydraulic model based on the hydrant information,” wrote Mighton.

The saga continues

One of the quirks of Nova Scotia’s freedom of information law is that opinions of the review officer are non-binding, so even if a review goes 100 per cent my way, there’s no guarantee the organization in question will comply.

The next step in the process would be a visit to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, which seems a little bit excessive for a map of fire hydrants, but if the principle of open government is hanging in the balance, CBC may choose to make the trip down to the law courts on Lower Water Street. That decision is thankfully above my pay grade.

In the meantime, after hearing my radio stories, some enterprising Haligonians have started using Google Street View to build their own map of Halifax fire hydrants. I can’t think of a nicer tribute to the spirit of free information.