Most GIS Maps Back on Line

By Oliver Lukacs

Jan. 6 -- When a two-block stretch of Ocean Park Boulevard collapsed last month, City officials tackled the emergency using a state-of-the-art map that is no longer publicly available.

Fearing that it could fall into the hands of terrorists, the map -- which is part of Santa Monica's eight-year-old Geographic Information System (GIS) -- was yanked from the City's Web site during the security frenzy that swept the nation after 9/11.

While other maps detailing the City's infrastructure have been uploaded once again, the map detailing its water system remains unavailable because its access poses one of the most ominous threats -- the elimination or poisoning of Santa Monica's water.

With it a person could "blow up a pump station, which would take out the water system for the entire city," said Michael Carson, the City's GIS coordinator.

"I am not a water expert," said Carson. "But since water feeds any building in Santa Monica, as well as the United States, you can think of horrendous things that can happen if something were to get into the water system."

Fearing exactly this and heeding continuous general federal alerts, the Santa Monica Police Department recommended several months after 9/11 that the City pull from its Web site all maps capable of aiding terrorists.

The maps, public safety officials worried, provide a virtual gold mine of detailed geographic information through cutting-edge technology and "super high-end software."

"There was not one specific order that came to Santa Monica" from the federal government, said SMPD spokesman Lt. Frank Fabrega. "Just like every other law enforcement agency throughout the country, the concern was making these things public could fall into the wrong hands.

"The City has no obligation to publish those maps," Frabega added. "It's a courtesy, and we just want to tighten the security end of it."

A planning and zoning map and a property information map detailing the location and size of land lots throughout the City were among those pulled from the GIS Web site, the internet phase of a program that "took off" after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The maps help locate new businesses, route garbage trucks, track environmental degradation and manage road paving, among their many functions.

According to Judy Rambeau, assistant to the City Manager for Community Relations, cities nationwide embarked upon "risk-assessment" programs after 9/11, sifting public information for potential landmines that were "problematic in terms of security."

However, Carson said, pulling multiple maps was a "knee-jerk reaction," and weeks later, as with many surrounding municipalities such as Culver City, all but the water map was reinstated in Santa Monica.

"We went through a process of assessing; what does it actually convey to the user," Carson said. "And the only one that was kind of questionable was the water system."

A digitized collection of engineering drawings complied over decades, the water system map details the locations of the water lines and their connection points underground, the location and size of water mains and valves, the materials they are made of and the year of their installation.

The map is used to solve emergencies, such as the one that resulted when a water main on Ocean Park Boulevard broke on December 30. The result was a 1,000-foot-long sinkhole stretching from 11th Street to Euclid that will take $1 million and eight months to repair.

"'Okay we got water coming out of the ground," Carson said. "What valves do we have to turn to close it off?'"

The City's GIS department -- recognized in Southern California as a leader in its field -- is also working to integrate the water system map into a central databank for City services to avoid costly, if not potentially dangerous, overlaps.

"Usually you want to dig up the street first to replace the main before you pave it," said Carson, "and we had some problems where they would pave the street, so you have a nice new street, and they come back a week later and dig it up."

"This system helps them avoid that so they kind of know what everybody else is doing," Carson said.

Maps of other vital utility infrastructure lifelines, such as gas, electricity, and telecommunications lines are held in the hands of private companies -- the Gas Company, the Electric Company and Southern California Edison, Carson said.

"They don't want to share it with us," said Carson. To get those maps, he said, the City would have to shell out thousands of dollars.