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County advances water‑system GIS ‘FLOW Forward’ and readies support for Coosa Valley grant; districts raise privacy concerns
Summary
County staff updated commissioners on FLOW Forward, a private GIS inventory of water‑system infrastructure for county planning and emergency management, and previewed a $1 million Coosa Valley community project funding award administered as a federal grant; water districts cautioned about sharing proprietary data and staff pledged outreach and limited ingestion of willing systems.
St. Clair County staff briefed commissioners June 4 on FLOW Forward, a GIS initiative to compile water‑system maps and operational data to support economic development, emergency management and planning.
The project lead said the county has already ingested CAD data from several utilities and has placed a staff intern to begin populating the system. "This information is not for public use," the staffer said, adding the data will be stored in a private area only accessible to county officials and will not be shared between districts unless directed by the districts.
Staff acknowledged some municipal water systems and their engineering consultants may be reluctant to share data they consider proprietary. The county will begin with water systems that voluntarily provide information and will perform outreach to explain that the data supports emergency planning (EMA), grant matching and faster operational responses.
Separately, staff noted that Coosa Valley Water received notice that Congressman Mark Rogers secured $1,000,000 in community project funding; the Environmental Protection Agency advised the award will be administered as a federal grant and requires formal application and compliance with federal procurement rules.
Commissioners asked staff to provide clear guidance about data protection and to report back on which properties or systems have agreed to participate. Staff said they will notify district boards and schedule a presentation for water managers and engineers to address concerns and explain the protections and purposes of the dataset.
