May 30 - Recovery crews have completed the search for missing workers after a chemical tank ruptured at a packaging plant in Washington state, bringing the confirmed fatalities to 11, officials said on Saturday.
Two deaths were reported immediately after the incident, and crews continued to search for the remaining missing people over the following days. Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue’s deputy chief, Kurt Stitch, said teams worked through debris inside the facility and deployed drones to inspect the outer areas of the site as the operation progressed.
The failure involved a storage tank that contained approximately 900,000 gallons (3.4 million liters) of what officials identified as "white liquor" - a chemical mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide that is used in the manufacture of paper pulp. Tests conducted after the rupture confirmed that contamination reached the nearby Columbia River, according to officials. At the same time, those officials said no "negative health impacts" had been observed in air quality testing or in the drinking water supplied to the city of Longview.
The tank imploded at a facility operated by Nippon Dynawave Packaging. Nippon Paper Industries, which is Japan’s second-largest paper manufacturer by sales, bought the Longview plant from Seattle-based timber company Weyerhaeuser for $225 million and established Nippon Dynawave Packaging as a wholly owned subsidiary in 2016.
Market information included with the incident report showed a share price snapshot for Nippon Paper Industries under the code 3863, indicating a close at 1,259.00 JPY, a decline of 108.0 JPY, or 7.90 percent, on a reported close of 29/05.
Officials have not reported any detected negative effects to public health from the tests performed to date, but the confirmation that chemical contamination entered the Columbia River underscores an ongoing environmental and operational concern for the plant and local authorities. The recovery work and subsequent testing indicate a multifaceted response involving on-site debris removal, aerial inspection, and environmental monitoring.
No further specifics were provided about the identities of the victims, the cause of the tank’s implosion, or any timeline for the plant’s future operations. Authorities described the recovery as complete once the nine missing people were found and the total of 11 fatalities was confirmed.
Summary
All nine previously missing people have been recovered following a chemical tank implosion at a Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility in Washington, bringing the confirmed deaths to 11. The tank held about 900,000 gallons of white liquor used in pulp production. Tests found contamination had entered the Columbia River, but officials reported no negative health impacts on air or Longview’s drinking water.