A storage tank that imploded and massacred 11 workers at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company (NDP) paper mill in Longview, Washington on May 26 was found to have faults in an inspection ten months prior that were ignored by the company, according to an August 28 report by the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB).
NDP’s inspection contractor Applied Technical Services reported in July 2025 that the exterior shell of the storage tank was “not fit for continued service” because its carbon-steel shell had several thinned areas. The monopoly used the same contractor to conduct two more inspections in October 2025 and February 2026, but it did not stop the storage tank’s operations. No internal inspections or repairs were conducted between July 2025 and May 2026.
On May 26, the storage tank imploded and released 900,000 gallons of a caustic and burning hot chemical mixture used to make paper pulp, called white liquor. The chemicals burned workers to death, killing eight workers in the electrical maintenance shop, two workers in the mechanical maintenance shop, and one worker in the courtyard: Dillon Miller, Gilbert Bernal, John Forsberg, brothers Brad Covington and Tyler Covington, Robert Wilson, Norman Barlow, Braydon Finkas, Dale Miller, Jared Ammons, and Clint “CJ” Doran. Three other workers were seriously injured from chemical burns.
NDP called on its medical emergency response team to help with the evacuation, but did not inform them white liquor had been released, according to the investigation update. One of the medical team members suffered serious chemical burns after wading through the liquid to rescue a worker, thinking that the liquid was water.
On August 10, Sheri Lynn King, Brad and Tyler Covington’s mother, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the paper monopoly. The lawsuit states NDP “failed to properly maintain and inspect equipment, safely shut down and start up equipment, isolate and vent equipment, train and supervise workers, communicate and warn about hazards, and implement adequate safety and emergency-response procedures.”
Washington state’s Department of Ecology has so far found NDP liable for 35 environmental violations associated with the spill and its handling of the cleanup. According to the department’s investigation, white liquor was discharged into the Columbia River and a nearby ditch, forcing residents to avoid the area and destroying the ecosystem.
The Japanese-based paper manufacturing monopoly is one of the largest pulp and paper industry companies in the world. Its NDP paper mill, which has about 530 workers, has a history of violations.
Washington state’s Department of Labor and Industries fined the monopoly less than $7,000 for more than a dozen safety complaints since 2018. The monopoly was forced to pay out over $2.4 million in worker compensation claims since 2015 to 169 workers injured on the job. Prior to the May implosion, the state issued 54 environmental violation notices against NDP and fined them $41,500 over the last decade.
While CSB’s investigation remains ongoing, years of paltry fines and toothless investigations by the government have proven to be ineffective in protecting workers and the environment, making the state and federal government complicit in the monopoly’s murder of workers in its pursuit of profits.
Image: The imploded storage tank in Longview, Washington. Credit: U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
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