CHILLICOTHE — A fractured 90-foot pump at the former Pixelle paper mill in Chillicothe could weaken containment of an old toxic groundwater plume beneath the city, the mill’s owner has warned — but the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency says there is no immediate risk, according to reporting by State Wonderer.
U.S. Paper Mill, which now owns the shuttered plant on East Eighth Street, told Ohio EPA on November 12 that a decades-old, 90-foot pump serving one of its water wells had fractured, State Wonderer reported. That well has helped hold the underground plume in place for years.
The plume itself is a legacy of the WearEver Aluminum factory, which made cookware in Chillicothe from 1948 until the late 1990s. According to an Ohio EPA fact sheet cited by State Wonderer, waste from the plant left chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethylene (TCE), along with lead, cadmium and other metals, in the soil and groundwater. The state ordered cleanup in 1993 and 1999, and Howmet, the current owner of the WearEver property, is responsible for controlling the contamination.
For decades, the paper mill next door pumped large amounts of groundwater for its operations, and two of those wells — known as wells 17 and 18 — also helped keep the contaminated water from spreading, State Wonderer reported. When Pixelle announced in April 2025 that it would close the mill, state regulators and Howmet began planning for what would happen if the pumping stopped.
U.S. Paper Mill says it has kept the wells running at its own expense since taking over the property. With the pump broken, the company warns the water table could eventually rise high enough to release contaminants, and that over time the plume could reach farmland, homes and the Scioto River, State Wonderer reported. The company called the situation “potentially urgent” and estimated a replacement pump will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, with no firm timeline yet for the repair.
The company also said residents do not need to worry about their drinking water right now, and that it wanted to be open with the community about the problem, according to State Wonderer.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed: the pump fractured, the mill notified Ohio EPA on November 12, and the agency is engaged. In a statement to 10TV quoted by State Wonderer, Ohio EPA said there is “no immediate risk of the plume migrating” despite the fracture, that it is working with U.S. Paper Mill to bring the wells back online, and that the WearEver site remains under regulatory oversight and long-term monitoring. The agency is also working with Howmet on plans for increased monitoring and long-term control of the plume.
What is still open: who pays for a replacement pump costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, how quickly it can be installed, and what monitoring will show in the meantime. Earlier monitoring reports filed with the state noted that homes southeast of the WearEver site are connected to the city water supply rather than private wells, State Wonderer reported.
The pump question lands in a busy stretch for Chillicothe infrastructure news — the city’s other major project, the Bridge Street corridor, is in its traffic-pattern switch this weekend, as NewsForce247 reported in Bridge Street Switch Underway in Chillicothe; Both Directions Back Monday Evening.
The timeline behind the warning stretches across three quarters of a century: the WearEver plant opened in 1948 and operated into the late 1990s; the state ordered cleanup in 1993 and again in 1999; the neighboring mill’s wells 17 and 18 spent years doubling as part of the containment system; Pixelle announced the mill’s closure in April 2025; and on November 12, 2026, the new owner told Ohio EPA that the pump holding that arrangement together had fractured, according to State Wonderer’s account of the Ohio EPA record.
That history is why a single broken pump draws state attention. The containment system was never a purpose-built remedy on its own — it depended on industrial pumping next door — and the closure of the mill turned a working arrangement into a planning problem that regulators, Howmet and the mill’s new owner are now working through in public.
What happens next: residents with questions can contact Ohio EPA’s Southeast District Office in Logan, which oversees the site, and NewsForce247 will follow the repair timeline and any new monitoring results as Ohio EPA and the mill release them.