In recent months I have been inundated with requests for information.  From First Nations, film makers, and MLAs, to Ministry of Environment staff, campaigners and seniors groups.  In some cases I've had to turn down requests due to limited time. 

Today I have added the Licence Browser to the site which, hopefully, will empower users to collect the information they need.  You may access it from the 'Licences' menu item on the top menu bar. 

Similar to the familiar 'Explorer View' found in many Windows applications, the licence browser categorizes licences in several different way.  The categories are displayed in the tree view in the upper left pane of the browse with licence details displayed as a grid.  To expand a category click on the icon beside the desired category.

The currently available categories are:

Licencee Parent

Many licences are held by companies that are owned by other companies.  When looking at who ultimately controls these licences it make sense to me to group them by the parent company.  Without access to corporate documents some of the associations I have made are just a best guess.

Electoral District

This licence categorization groups licences into the electoral district in which they are located.  Some newly registered points of diversion currently lack geographic co-ordinates and therefore will not appear in any district.  For information I have added contact information for each elected representative which you will see displayed in the 'Category Details' pane in the bottom left corner.

Regional District

Similar to the electoral district categorization, this category groups licences into regional districts and provides contact information for each district.

All

This list will display all current water licences. Due to the number of licences selecting 'All' licences will cause browsers on slower computers to grind to a halt while attempting to render the data. If this is the case for you please be patient. 

Once a category has been expanded the center grid will be populated with licence information for licences in the selected category.  Licences may be sorted by clicking on the desired sort item in the grid header.  To download all licences in the displayed grid click on the  icon located in the toolbar on the bottom of the grid. 

If time permits this framework will be expanded to include new categories, the Google Map, as well as an integrated wiki that the public will be able to contribute to.  If you would like to see additional data added to this frame work please drop me an email with your ideas.

Craig

While I have had little time to write about additions to the map I have been updating both the versions of the map on a weekly basis.

Since my last post here only 2 water power licences have been granted.

During that same period the water stewardship divsion of the Ministry of Evironment have recieved and cleared 142 water power licence applications for 185 points of diversion.

This month’s map update brings numerous license additions and 3 new map layers.

Private Power Licenses are now viewable in the following layers:  By License Status.  By License holder, sorted by license count. This layer shows the significance of each of the players in the private power industry. By Electoral district, sorted by license count.  The header for each electoral district contains contact information for the MLA in each riding. By Regional District, sorted by license count. The header for each regional district also contains RD contact information. Only one license layer may be active at a time.  To select another license layer click the appropriate radio button in the Google Earth Places tree view.  To hide the legend simply remove the check mark from the legend item.

Two new layers have been added to the map.  The first contains the location of all dams in BC and is derived from the ministry of the environment's public dam list.  I find it interesting that several "run-of-river" projects have registered dams.

 dam ¹ (dm)
n.
1.
a. A barrier constructed across a waterway to control the flow or raise the level of water.
b. A body of water controlled by such a barrier.
2. A barrier against the passage of liquid or loose material, as a rubber sheet

The second new layer contains photos and videos of projects underconstruction.   Presently only one site is covered however I will be adding other sites as photographs become available.  If you have any "before" and "after" photos you would like to contribute please email them to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it