Chillicothe — Mayor Luke Feeney gave a long briefing in the latest council session, covering the impact of the paper mill closing on city government, the Wear-Ever groundwater pollution, and other issues.
Feeney spoke for 23 minutes in the August 25th, 2025 council session. For the first 11 minutes, he addressed Pixelle issues, and also the paper mill’s impact on the Wear-Ever / Howmet plume of “forever chemicals” in the groundwater under the facility on Eastern Avenue.
Feeney pointed out that Chillicothe is in a position unlike many towns where a major employer departs. He said the Pixelle situation is more of a public affair here, with weekly task-force meetings to address many aspects of it since the closure announcement.
But, he said they haven’t been able to delay the closure or get much progress from the almost silent Pixelle owner, H.I.G. Capital. At last report, H.I.G. was still considering purchase offers – as reported in Monday’s paper mill task force meeting.
Feeney said there had been complaints about Pixelle not paying some laid-off employees. He said he had spoken to the labor union president, who told him that everyone did get paid – but because it was a last payment, Feeney said he was told it was an abnormal situation, and payroll made mistakes because of different employee contracts and different management of employee investments.
After about five minutes, Feeney then addressed the impact of the Pixelle water wells on the Wear-Ever / Howmet groundwater pollution. (He had also addressed the plume in the July 28th council session.)
Maps of the plume show that a high-capacity well on the river side of the U.S. 23 / 35 freeway has pulled the “plume” of industrial toxins that originated under 1089 Eastern Avenue northeastward, and prevented it from drifting southeast with the flow of groundwater.
Feeney said he spoke with the Ohio EPA about the concern of the paper mill wells being shut down and allowing the plume to move differently.
He said the EPA reported that Howmet agreed to install two additional monitoring wells…but the EPA is not satisfied with monitoring as the only end response to the situation. Remediation – cleaning the chemicals out of the ground – is another option.
Feeney said we need to know why a cleanup was not required 30-plus-years ago, and what scenario would force Howmet to clean it up.
He was told the existing Pixelle wells are still in operation, and the end of the mill does not mean the wells are being shut down. He said he scheduled a meeting with Ohio EPA to confer with council and the county commissioners, and that he is confident that the EPA will keep them informed.
Feeney addressed other city issue in the second part of his briefing. Hear him in his own words in the below two-part videos of his briefing.
Activists also gathered in front of old City Hall and briefly spoke to council on concerns about the Wear-Ever pollution. Hear from them in a related story.
You can also find the council session on council’s live and archived video on Facebook and YouTube. (The audio is clear, but YouTube does offer closed captioning.)
