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Baltimore Village advances water‑line priorities and hears resident worries about meter data privacy
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Summary
Staff outlined a 4–6 year plan for targeted water‑line replacements and coordination with a Columbia Gas paving project; a council member asked whether new meters could expose granular household use data, prompting staff to promise contract review and clarification.
Village staff presented a short‑term water‑modeling plan that identifies priority lines for replacement over the next four to six years and recommended coordinating work with a Columbia Gas pipeline replacement and paving project to reduce costs.
"We're going to start with that since they're already going to be up there tearing up the roads," staff said, describing a paired approach on Rome's side to replace gas and water lines and depave the road only once.
Staff also updated the council on meter installations: 42 of 50 meters had been installed with eight remaining for new builds and replacements. The village plans additional outreach — including evening time slots — to complete a water‑service inventory aimed at identifying potential lead service lines.
Privacy concerns surfaced when a council member asked whether the new meters or the water‑modeling vendor (V3) could access and sell subscriber‑level consumption data. "I think when the previous council was talking about these meters they said they could get this subscriber level consumption data, like, to the point where they can tell when they're in the bathroom," the council member said, asking whether V3 could sell or otherwise misuse residents' data.
Staff and the consultant responded that the system as contracted does not provide that level of individualized data collection to the village and that V3 would not be selling resident consumption data. Staff said the water‑modeling contract was already completed but agreed to review contract language and consider a modification to add explicit data‑use protections if needed.
In separate funding news, staff said the village submitted a pre‑application for a CDBG critical infrastructure grant on March 30 to replace roughly 700 feet of pipe serving the school and firehouse; Hicks Partners will rank projects for county commissioners to decide awards.
Next steps: staff will provide the council with details on the contracted meter capabilities and will examine contract language to determine whether additional data‑privacy protections should be added or clarified.
