Oh Crap! Dealing With Sewer Upgrades Is a Complicated Mess

Oh Crap! Dealing With Sewer Upgrades Is a Complicated Mess

Author: Strong Towns July 29, 2024 Duration: 58:08
Maumee, Ohio, winner of the 2024 Strongest Town Contest, is facing a big sewer infrastructure challenge. It needs to update its sewer system to comply with EPA regulations — an extremely large, expensive project. To handle this problem, the city is requiring residents who want to sell their homes to pay for the needed updates to their sewage systems, which is generating backlash from residents. In this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck explains the history of sewer infrastructure, how the Clean Water Act affects cities and the very limited options that cities have to handle this kind of challenge. He also points out that the Strongest Town Contest is about celebrating cities that are working hard to improve, rather than finding cities that are perfect. Just because Maumee is facing this challenge does not mean that it’s a failure — and it’s not alone in this struggle, either. All cities are either facing this challenge, too, or will be facing it in the near future. That’s the consequence of decades of unproductive growth. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Chuck Marohn (Twitter/X). Become a member.

Each week, Charles Marohn guides a discussion that feels less like a formal lecture and more like a thoughtful chat with a knowledgeable neighbor. The Strong Towns Podcast digs into the practical, often overlooked details that determine whether a community thrives or just struggles along. The conversations here consistently connect the dots between sensible budgeting and the physical shape of our streets, parks, and neighborhoods, arguing that true resilience comes from this intersection. You’ll hear specific examples of how towns and cities can make incremental, affordable investments that build long-term wealth and stability, moving beyond short-term fixes. Rather than offering abstract theory, this podcast focuses on actionable ideas for local leaders and engaged citizens alike, exploring how everyday decisions about infrastructure and land use directly impact a place's financial health. It’s a grounded perspective on creating communities that are not only more solvent but also more welcoming and livable. The ongoing dialogue reinforces the core idea that a strong town is built from the bottom up, one block at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Strong Towns Podcast
Podcast Episodes
Why Persuasion Fails When You Lead With Data [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:20
Good arguments fail when they ignore how people feel. Chuck Marohn and Joshua Bandoch talk through using empathy, ethical persuasion, and values-based stories with everyone from public works directors to concerned reside…
Why Messy Cities Depend On People Who Take Action [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:47
Chuck and Kevin Klinkenberg explore why progress comes from people who stop waiting for permission and start doing things locally. They look at incremental developers, neighborhood groups, and the limits of top-down syst…
Gas Taxes, Freeways, And What Washington Should Fund Now [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:43
Chuck Marohn and Tony Dutzik unpack the messy history of the gas tax, cross‑subsidies between states, and the moral story drivers were told about “user fees.” They revisit highway revolts, the rise of federal transit fun…
Balancing Big Experiments And Neighborhood Fixes In California Housing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:24
In this moderated panel at the REACH Ideas + Action Summit, Chuck Marohn and California Forever’s Jim Wunderman tackle California’s housing crisis from two very different angles: maturing existing neighborhoods and build…
Why Infrastructure Maintenance Might Be The Real Megaproject [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:50
New Zealand’s infrastructure commission added up every sector’s project wish‑list—and found a bill voters could never realistically pay. In this conversation, Geoff Cooper and Chuck Marohn unpack the national plan that s…
From Service Cuts To Understanding City Insolvency [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:48
The conversation follows Michel Durand-Wood's path from noticing small local cuts—closed pools, rising taxes—to understanding his city as structurally insolvent. Along the way, he and Chuck talk about grants, debt, Canad…
Beyond Supply and Demand to Housing’s Unseen Financial Forces [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:17
Chuck walks through three ways of seeing the housing crisis: supply, demand, and the Strong Towns view that grapples with “dark finance” and capital flows. He explains why campaign-style wins and single-variable fixes ra…
What Comes After the Interstate Era? | New Report [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:47
For years, the dominant explanation for America’s infrastructure problems has been that we haven’t invested enough. Yet federal spending on transportation is at historic highs, and frustration with the results continues…
Humility Versus Hubris in American Urbanism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:34:27
Why 95% of planners get it wrong, how monetary policy killed Main Street, and why Chuck Marohn is optimistic about Gen Z. This wide-ranging conversation, first featured on the Yeoman podcast with Geoff Graham, explores t…
Where the Strong Towns Movement Is Headed in 2026 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:20
In this year’s State of Strong Towns address, Chuck Marohn reflects on where the movement stands at the start of 2026 — what’s changed, what’s growing, and how the work ahead remains grounded in humility, restraint, and…