Maumee mayor confronts complex sewer issues and popular discontent

Maumee Mayor James MacDonald affirmed his confidence in embattled city Administrator Patrick Burtch and vowed to rethink how the city can comply with an Ohio EPA order that mandates reducing inflows of storm water into the sanitary sewers, he said in an interview with The Blade. The city’s sewer dilemmas stem from the discovery that for 25 years, Maumee employees had illegally discharged sewage into the Maumee River and falsified reports to the EPA about the city’s practices.