Chillicothe — Two activists urged a response to the Wear-Ever/Howmet groundwater pollution in Chillicothe Council. Jason Salley, an investigative reporter who focuses on local environmental issues – and Jamie Brown, who has been active with fighting the homeless camp / Chapter 555 legislation in council earlier his year – addressed council in their public forum in Monday’s council session on September 8th, 2025.
Salley had made two appearances before council in 2024, speaking about gun violence and how his niece was traumatized by the latest major shooting in town.
Salley now has many stories and posts on local toxic sites on several internet sites, especially the “Ohio Atomic Press” and “Wear-Ever Exposed.” His Facebook page has links to many of his online accounts.
Salley focused on the plume of industrial chemicals in the groundwater under the shuttered factory at 1089 Eastern Avenue in southeast Chillicothe. He spoke to council with the aid of a Wear-Ever “Chicken Bucket,” a low pressure fryer that was one of their last products.
He said his uncle died of COPD, which mystified Salley because he was such a health-conscious man. But Salley said, when he looked into his uncle’s medical records, they listed exposure to benzene, teflon, and other chemicals as a Wear-Ever worker.
Salley said he dug in and found how toxic that factory was – and still is. He said for 30 years it has been left to puddle cancer under Chillicothe.
Wear-Ever is a corporate descendant of Alcoa (the Aluminum Company of America), and so is the current owner of the site, Howmet Aerospace. Salley said Chillicothe is not the only town affected by Alcoa – they are “corporate polluters.”
He criticized council for ignoring his previous pleas about gun control, and the mayor for not responding to his emails about what if the Wear-Ever plume infiltrates the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Salley said he was glad the old city dump was mentioned (in the mayor’s briefing) – another toxic site, where he said 6,500 tons of hazardous chemicals from Dupont were dumped there between 1974 and 1979. He said that is why it needs to have additional monitoring, in addition to standard monitoring for landfills – it is extra-toxic among dumps.
Salley said Chillicothe is a city full of old toxic sites, some cleaned or not. He asked how many know about a chemical factory that had two sludge lagoons on Washington Avenue, that processed sulphuric acid and bauxite – and like Wear-Ever, is close to and possibly affecting Mary Lou Patton Park.
He called for a “full epidemiological study” of the city, and how toxic sites have affected local cancer rates.
He said the Ohio Health Department shows 90% of new cancer cases and 29.3% of deaths in Ross County are lung and bronchial cancer. And while lung cancer is commonly blamed on smoking instead of pollution, there is a similar situation in Pike County around the former Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
He said, in fact, some of highest cancer rates in the state and nation are in Ross County…we are behind Pike County, but not by much. “These are not numbers, these are lives, these are families – and I know this is election year, but people are watching to see how this council handles the toxic messes and the legacy from those, and whether or not you are going to find out if they are linked to the cancer problems we have in this county.”
Salley has been in communication with me on pollution sites in and around Chillicothe, and I plan to interview him soon. Hear Salley in his own words in the below video of his address to council.
In his address, Jamie Brown came dressed as a skeleton, as other activists have in recent council sessions.
Brown pointed out that the current owner of the Wear-Ever site, Howmet, made $7.4B in 2024 – versus Brown’s family income of $88K. Then he gave an analogy based on those income figures. “I want to tell you a story. This is a fake story, but it’s a fun one to listen to.”
He fantasized that the EPA tested the soil under his home and found toxic pollution there. Brown complained that he didn’t do it, but the EPA said it didn’t matter, you have to deal with it and put in four monitoring wells. So Brown offered to install only two wells – like Howmet has offered at the Wear-Ever factory.
He then said he would use up the rest of the five minutes he was allowed in a public address to council.
Brown said that Howmet’s 2024 earning is 12% higher than the previous year’s profit. He said they can easily afford all four monitoring wells, so it’s not a cost issue. He speculated that it might be instead what four extra wells would show about the groundwater pollution that only two would not.
Hear Brown in his own words in the below video of his address.
