LONGVIEW — Recovery operations resumed Wednesday at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility where a tank filled with hundreds of thousands of gallons of a caustic industrial chemical ruptured Tuesday, as officials shifted focus from rescue to a deliberate search for nine missing workers while addressing environmental fallout from the spill. The death toll has now climbed to two—Gilbert Bernal and Dillon Miller.
Governor Bob Ferguson, who visited the site and attended a community vigil the night before, spoke directly to the human toll.
“We’re bracing ourselves for this being the deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington State history,” Gov. Ferguson said at Wednesday’s midday news conference joined by local fire commanders and company representatives in Longview. “When you have a tragedy of that scale, the impacts on individuals, on families and on communities is profound.” He extended condolences to those who lost loved ones and praised the community’s resilience. “We have certainly seen that in the response to this tragedy,” Ferguson added. “We’re going to need every ounce of that resiliency in the weeks, months and years ahead.”
The breach happened shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday during a shift change at the kraft pulp and paper plant, which produces liquid packaging board and employs roughly 1,000 people. The tank held white liquor, a mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide used to break down wood chips into pulp. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is a strong base rapidly dissolves soft tissues (proteins and fats) through a chemical reaction called saponification.
Fire Chief Scott Goldstein of Cowlitz II Fire & Rescue said crews had declared the transition to recovery Wednesday morning after drone flights, structural assessments and additional data from plant officials eased concerns about the tank’s stability. The vessel, with a 900,000-gallon capacity and believed to have been about 60 percent full at the time of the failure, now contains roughly 25,000 gallons — down from an earlier estimate of 90,000 gallons the night before. That means an estimated 550,000 to 570,000 gallons escaped, Goldstein said, though the remaining product is leaking more slowly and sits on the far side of the tank from the breach point.
Structural issues with buildings and industrial equipment have been assessed and mitigated and contingency plans are in place should the tank need further stabilization or removal.
Battalion Chief Matt Amos of the Longview Fire Department described the work ahead as slow, methodical and deliberate. Recovery teams in chemical protective gear are moving through waist- to chest-deep liquid in affected areas, which has begun to recede. The priority, Amos said, remains responder safety while treating each victim with dignity.
As bodies are located, they will be decontaminated on site before transport to the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office for identification and family notification. The coroner will release names only after all recoveries and notifications are complete.
As of Wednesday afternoon, nine employees remained unaccounted for. Seven others who work at the plant were still hospitalized with injuries. One of the nine workers initially transported from the scene on Tuesday later died, bringing the number of confirmed fatalities among those transported now to two.
A firefighter injured during the initial response has been released from the hospital and is scheduled for follow-up care.
Ferguson reported that 46 members of the Washington National Guard were on scene Wednesday. Ten civil support team members assisted the Department of Ecology with air monitoring, which so far has shown no evidence of airborne contamination. Twenty members of the Homeland Response Force stood ready to help with decontamination efforts, and eight from the Fatality Search and Rescue unit supported recovery work.
The state Department of Health is working alongside local health officials on a public health assessment, with its mass fatality coordinator aiding the coroner and hospitals. The Department of Labor & Industries has met with injured workers and families to share available benefits and to begin an investigation into the incident. The state Employment Security Department activated a rapid response team to assist the company and the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers union.
The Department of Ecology continued water quality testing and collaborated with federal partners and Nippon Dynawave Packaging officials on a plan to remove the remaining white liquor.
Brian Wood, director of support services for Nippon Dynawave Packaging, reported pH spikes at outfalls to the Columbia River shortly after the rupture and again a couple of hours later. Some carp in a nearby ditch died after exposure to the high-pH material that flowed through storm drains and into the consolidated diking district system. Department of Ecology officials have stated that so far, no negative health impacts have been identified for Longview air quality or with the Longview’s drinking water supply, which is under continuous monitoring.
To contain the contamination, the Cowlitz County Diking Improvement District No. 1 resumed pumping operations Wednesday evening at the Reynolds Way Industrial Pumping Station under oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Ecology. The goal is to pull contaminated water away from sloughs, residential neighborhoods and the city’s water system. Longview water crews conducted hydrant flushing to introduce clean water into the stormwater drainage system, helping push contaminated flows outward. Crews also diverted water from the Cowlitz River intake into Ditch 3 to increase overall flow through the network.
Residents near flushing sites may experience temporary drops in water pressure, Longview Fire Department released in a statement. The public was urged to stay away from drainage ditches and waterways in the affected industrial areas while operations continue into the evening.
Wood shared the company is working with the diking district, Ecology and the EPA on neutralization steps for material in the north ditch along state Route 432.
“These are our people,” Woods said holding back tears. “We are focused on our people. We are focused on helping our responders find and recover those people…. We will cooperate to the maximum extent that we can with the investigation. It is our duty and our obligation to do so.”
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA03) who attended Wednesday’s press briefing, called for a comprehensive, unbiased investigation to restore trust and ensure safe jobs for Nippon’s workers.
Author: Mario Lotmore
