The Lucas County Recreation Center, a county-owned 73-acre parcel in Maumee city limits, has recently received some hefty water bills from the city of Maumee.
The county currently owes Maumee between $650,000 and $950,000 for sanitary sewer outflow charges for 2022 and a portion of 2021. The amount the county will pay has not been finalized because both parties are still negotiating terms, an official with the Maumee finance department said.
Wherever the final cost lands, it is substantially higher than any other bill the county has previously received at the property. For example, 2021 sanitary sewer charges totaled approximately $52,000, which was based on water consumption at the site. Since the property is largely vacant, a high amount of water is typically not used.
The steep increase this year is attributed to data from flow monitors, which were installed in outfall drains from the property at Key Street and Michigan Avenue. One was installed in October, 2021, and the other was installed over the summer.
Both monitors have detected an excessive amount of water being discharged into the sanitary system from that property. That essentially means that the amount of water filtering off of the property and into the sanitary system far exceeds the amount being used in restrooms or other potable water-usage outlets at that site, Maumee officials say.
Since self-reporting to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in 2021 that it had illegally discharged millions of gallons of sewage into the Maumee River, the city of Maumee has been working to identify and correct issues in its entire underground infrastructure.
Part of the corrective action plan includes flow monitoring to measure the amount of water in the system in order to detect leaks. Throughout the city, Maumee has installed 32 flow meters, which are equipped with sensors to monitor water pressure, depth, volume, velocity, and direction of the water flow.
Maumee capital project manager Matt Miles reviews data from the sensors and found that the amount in the system from the Lucas County property spikes during a rainfall, which would indicate that their storm system is leaking into the sanitary sewer system.
“It is indicative of something coming into the system really quickly,” he said. “I don’t think that the whole fairgrounds dumps every bit of rainwater into the sanitary, but do we get enough that it matters to us.”
Commissioner reacts
Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken is not entirely convinced that the data represents water coming exclusively from the Rec Center property. Attorneys for both parties are currently hashing out those details, he said.
“We were surprised when these nontraditional charges on stormwater, that we have never seen before, suddenly came to us in forms of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a very quick time,” Mr. Gerken said. “At this point we’ve been presented with the bills, they are non-traditional and not well-documented.”
The county will pay its bills and make repairs to the system, as needed, he said. Plans are under way to line a sewer on the north side of the property, which have been leaking.
“We are leaders on water quality, and we are not going to do anything and have not done anything to degrade the water system,” Mr. Gerken said. “Our record doesn’t show that. If they can substantiate these bills and work cooperatively to resolve them, then that’s the best solution. We will do everything that we can to contain our water on our property, if we are contributors to that, and that has not been validated yet. But we are going to do the right thing.”
Maumee is one of many jurisdictions that sends water through the sanitary system to the Lucas County Sewer District treatment plant on North River Road in Waterville. Then, like other jurisdictions, Maumee is charged for treatment services based on the amount of water going to the plant.
Excess stormwater in the sanitary system leads to unnecessary costs to taxpayers and unnecessary treatment resources being used at the facility, Mr. Miles said.
“We’re spending money that we shouldn’t be spending, and we’re using resources at the treatment center that we shouldn’t be using, because it’s rainwater and it doesn’t belong there,” Mr. Miles said. “We’re also risking overtaxing our system, because it’s not supposed to have rainwater in it.”
The Rec Center housed the Toledo Mud Hens baseball team for nearly four decades between 1965 and 2001. The minor league team then moved from that site to downtown Toledo’s Fifth Third Field in 2002. In February, the county commissioners announced their intention to raze the vacant Ned Skeldon Stadium.
An official date for the demolition has not yet been set. The county also has an ongoing feasibility study to help determine the best use for the recreation center property. Results of the study are anticipated to be returned before the end of this year.
To rectify sewer problems on the property the entire system would have to be studied, which will be a lengthy and costly process, Mr. Miles said. The stormwater infiltrating Maumee’s sanitary system from the Rec Center property did not contribute to the city’s outfall into the Maumee River that was reported last summer, he added.
“But it causes other problems, we have backups and strain on our system as a result of the amount of water we are taking from the Rec Center,” he said.
Other factors
Maumee city administrator Patrick Burtch acknowledged that other property sites have also contributed to the Maumee’s problems including a sewer connection with the city of Toledo near Detroit Avenue, in which an excessive amount of storm water is also infiltrating the sanitary system.
In fact, Toledo owes the city of Maumee approximately $448,000 for 2022 sanitary sewer charges based on data from flow monitoring at that site. A corrective resolution has been discussed with city officials from Toledo. The outstanding invoice, however, has not been paid, Mr. Burtch said.
A spokesman from Toledo was not immediately available for comment on the situation.
Other property owners with incorrect connections, both business and residential, have either corrected or are correcting problems as they have been discovered, Mr. Burtch said.
“Maumee is committed to saving its own residents money,” he said. “I personally have no hard feelings toward any entity, and I certainly would not recommend to the council that we try to lash out and embarrass or hurt anybody. What we are trying to do is get it fixed. If the tables were turned, I would recommend that the council do the right thing, and we’re expecting them [Lucas County] to do the right thing.”
Maumee Mayor Richard Carr agrees that paying the sanitary sewer charges is the initial step in resolving the issue and that fixing the system is the best long-term solution.
In light of Maumee’s admission to discharging sewage into the river last year, the Lucas County commissioners announced an initiative. Titled the Commission on Maumee River Discharges, it is to study the history, nature, and extent of Maumee’s handling of its storm and sanitary sewer overflows and its communication with the Ohio EPA for the past three decades.
Mr. Carr said the county is not being targeted with flow-meter monitoring, but he does find its purpose somewhat ironic in light of the data readings from those monitors.
“What they are doing is in violation of EPA laws by discharging this into our sanitary system,” Mr. Carr said. “I would think they would want to be the first ones to correct this problem because they were so concerned about what we were discharging into the river. And once they understand that they are a major contributor to the problem that they would want to fix it immediately.”
First Published October 9, 2022, 7:11 p.m.
