County GIS manager proposes 'Flow Forward' waterline database to aid planning, EMA and economic development

St. Clair County's GIS manager, Brian Price, presented the 'Flow Forward' initiative to assemble water‑system infrastructure into a secure, county‑wide GIS dataset to support four use cases: county decision‑making, economic development outreach, EMA operational planning and highway department avoidance during excavations. Price said the dataset would be restricted and hosted in a secure 'lock box' environment with access limited to authorized users.

Price told the commission utilities had raised security concerns about sharing detailed valve and pipeline locations; he emphasized the proposal includes safeguards and that staff will meet water managers and boards to explain use cases and protections before final requests for data. "The goal of this project is to provide information, a whole county view for four specific purposes," Price told commissioners. He asked the commission to support initial outreach and to authorize staff meetings with utility boards to negotiate data‑sharing agreements and any legal language required by the water systems.

Commissioners stressed using the mapping to support grant applications and economic development pitches (for example, documenting sewer/water availability for direct‑appropriation or competitive grant requests). Price said a single consolidated dataset would also reduce delays when commissioners or staff need low‑income or infrastructure availability data for federal appropriations requests.