LONGVIEW—Emergency responders planned to resume recovery operations Wednesday at Nippon Dynawave Packaging, a southwest Washington packaging plant, where a tank filled with nearly 1 million gallons of a caustic industrial chemical ruptured, killing at least one worker, injuring nine others of which eight have been taken to area hospitals, and leaving nine employees unaccounted for.
“My team and I are tracking developments in Longview closely after a major chemical explosion,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a statement. “Responders from our state Department of Ecology have been deployed to the scene. I’m deeply saddened to hear that there have been fatalities. My thoughts are with the workers and their families, and with the first responders.”
The state Department of Ecology deployed teams to monitor for potential environmental impacts, including possible spillage into a drainage ditch. The Department of Labor & Industries and Washington State Emergency Management Division also have personnel on scene, and the Washington National Guard has been placed on alert.
Gov. Ferguson has met with leaders from key state agencies and shared on X he is heading to Longview to meet directly with local responders.
The breach happened about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, at Nippon Dynawave Packaging, a kraft pulp and paper mill that produces liquid packaging board and employs roughly 1,000 workers at its facility along the Columbia River at 3401 Industrial Way. The tank held 900,000 gallons of white liquor — a mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide used in the kraft pulping process to break down wood chips into pulp. An estimated 90,000 gallons is possibly still inside the damaged vessel, according to a joint update from the Longview Fire Department and Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue.
The rupture created unstable structural conditions that have limited access to parts of the worksite. Responders have been continued reinforcing and stabilizing the tank before venturing deeper into affected areas, the fire department wrote in a press release. Operations have been paused overnight.
As of Wednesday, no cause for the rupture had been released.
Author: Mario Lotmore
