2005 Prius - front right tire grinding noise

Hi all,

I've got a 2005 Prius with ~140k miles on her. In the past few weeks, I've noticed a nasty grinding sound coming from the front right passenger wheel. It only occurs above ~55 mph, and the pitch of the sound is dependent on speed.

It's a little hard to hear, it's a grinding sound. It sort of reminds me of the sound of metal on concrete.

I've seen a few topics (this one and this one, for example) discussing a similar issue, with suggestions that it is a failing wheel bearing. I've listened to a few examples of failed wheel bearings on YouTube, and the sound I'm hearing is much higher pitched, and is more sporadic. (definitely not a low, periodic thumping). I've stuck my hand behind the wheel to feel for any debris, and didn't find anything.

One thing I did notice when I took a closer look at my tire is that the black plastic on the bottom of the bumper is in pretty bad shape, and is no longer attached to the metal of the frame by a fastener. This fastener is near the front of the wheel well. It's certainly possible that some part of the bumper is flapping around and making that noise.

Any thoughts on this? I'm going to drive her as little as possible until I can get her to a mechanic, but I wanted to see what you folks thought too. I'm not a car person, so I could be totally off on things here.

Here's a link to a YouTube video of the issue: https:// youtu.be/wedMqprOamE (remove the space, I can't post links yet)