Ohio EPA has issued the City of Chillicothe a notice of violation and placed the city in significant noncompliance with the pretreatment program requirements of its wastewater permit, following an inspection of the Easterly wastewater treatment plant on Aug. 10 and 11, 2026.
The notice, dated Oct. 14, 2026, follows a Pretreatment Compliance Inspection of the city’s approved pretreatment program, which governs how industrial users discharge into the Easterly plant. The plant, at 405 Environmental Way, treats about 2.5 million gallons per day under a permit that took effect Dec. 1, 2025.
Ohio EPA cited three violations. Inspectors found the pretreatment coordinator employed during the inspection was not knowledgeable about key aspects of the approved program, a problem the report attributes to recent employee turnover that left the coordinator undertrained.
The agency also found the city failed to submit its quarterly industrial user violation reports for January, April and July 2026 by the 15th day of those months. No quarterly reports had been submitted since October 2025, the inspection found, and reports later received were deemed incomplete.
Third, Ohio EPA found a significant industrial user did not submit self-monitoring reports as required from September 2025 through July 2026, and that the city failed to follow its own Enforcement Response Plan, including issuing a timely notice of violation. The city’s three significant industrial users are Herr’s Foods, Adena and Kenworth, according to the inspection documents.
Ohio EPA directed the city to submit, for each violation, a plan describing how it will return to compliance, and to provide documentation within 30 days of receiving the letter of the actions taken or that will be taken. The agency warned that failure to comply may result in an administrative or civil penalty.
The notice arrives while the Easterly plant is undergoing a complete upgrade of its treatment systems. The pretreatment program Ohio EPA oversees in Chillicothe was originally approved on March 29, 1985.
For residents, the case is about paperwork and oversight rather than a spill: Ohio EPA recorded no noncompliance by Herr’s Foods with pretreatment discharge standards in its own file review, and the cited failures were the missing reports and the city’s response to them, along with expired discharge permits for Howmet and Adena noted in the inspection.