Propane map update

Sorry about the confusion over the propane map yesterday. The plan was to create a map of the larger propane facilities in the GTA (those licenced to hold over 5,000 U.S. gallons) with a 1.6 kilometre radius around each of them.

The 1.6 km radius was based on Toronto mayor David Miller's proposal to keep large propane facilities that distance away from residential areas. One thing the map was meant to show was what that meant in actual neighbourhoods. (Are there large propane facilities near houses, and if so, where?)  I can't help but notice that 1.6 km is almost exactly a mile, but be that as it may.

So I produced a map based on the TSSA's list of these facilities in Toronto, York, Durham, Peel and Halton, which turned out to be a very time-consuming process for various reasons, starting with the difficulty of dealing with the .pdf file that the TSSA had released.

At the same time, reporter Henry Stancu was driving around the city trying to find the installations on the TSSA's list:

(The TSSA) also released a list of filling-tank depots around Ontario yesterday. But the list appeared to be inaccurate when the Star made its own checks of six large facilities listed as licensed to store just under 19,000 litres of propane. One business didn't appear to exist at the listed location; a second was a petroleum storage facility that an employee said had no propane. A third was a townhouse development.

A TSSA spokesperson acknowledged last night the agency had not had enough time to verify the list and said it hoped to make an updated list available Friday.

To make a long story short, we ended up delinking the map once we found out it didn't depict anything useful.

As a citizen, I'd prefer it if the agency in charge of safety at these facilities actually seemed to know where they all are, but that's just me.

The best I can do is to hope to make a new map based on this updated (ie. accurate) list, assuming it eventually appears.