Eleven workers dead in pulp mill tank eruption

Seattle

There are 11 pulp and paper mill workers presumed dead after a tank implosion at the Nippon Dynawave facility in Longview, Washington, on May 26. This is the most deadly industrial accident in recent years in this country. The deaths and severe injuries are due to corporate negligence, pure and simple.

The tank that collapsed belched out 500,000 gallons of “white liquor,” a heavily caustic compound used in the paper-making process. The implosion probably meant instant death for a number of the workers. The white liquor spread into the storm drain system and into the Columbia River, which the plant fronts on. This presents a health threat to the whole community until first responders can get the water systems diluted.

The deadly accident has closed the 1,000-worker mill, as Longview, 35 miles north of Portland, Oregon, with a population of 40,000, deals with the grief of losing family members, friends and neighbors — as well as learning the cause and the blame for the terrible disaster. There have been a number of fundraisers and memorials for the worker victims as well as a continued vigil outside the plant as the process of recovering the victims is extremely tedious.

The Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers union hall, near the plant, has been a center of information and coordination.

Nippon responsible for the tragedy

The cause of this terrible disaster should not be any mystery. The Nippon plant has a record of worker safety and environmental regulation violations longer than the mile-long facility. The plant has a longstanding resistance to abiding by containment regulations, sometimes exceeding limits by nearly 800%, federal records show. In 2017, some 4,000 to 5,000 gallons of sulfuric acid spilled at the plant, local officials said at the time.

Over the past five years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited Nippon Dynawave Packaging for at least 19 air and water standards violations. For all these violations the mill has been fined a total of $16,000, of which the EPA has collected only $10,000. The EPA is handling Nippon with kid gloves.

Federal officials have cited the mill for other violations, including improper operation and maintenance of equipment, industrial spills, failure to conduct inspections and more. Many workers, former workers and their families interviewed by the media have expressed fears about working at the mill. The underfunded government agencies such as the EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration do not impactfully enforce basic health and safety

rules. The constant push for giant profits, especially from transnational corporations such as Nippon and Washington-based timber company Weyerhaeuser, means worker health and safety is ignored.

While the use of corrosive chemicals in the paper making process is hazardous, this industrial process is 100 years old. The dangers should be known and minimized. People who advocate a gentler, safer process using nontoxic and nonvolatile solvents have been met by industry rejection.

The fact that there was another hazardous tank incident in Garden Grove, California, reveals a crisis of safety involving dangerous chemicals due to the capitalist drive for profits. The GKN Aerospace company’s tank developed a crack and overheated, releasing chemicals that can cause severe respiratory, neurological and skin problems. About 50,000 people had to be evacuated in working-class Garden Grove, which along with nearby Westminster has the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam.

Nippon and Weyerhaeuser run Longview

Nippon Dynawave, a Japanese conglomerate, is a paper-making empire with 178 group companies operating in 15 countries. In 2012 it had a net income of $10.7 billion. For starters, it should be obligated to provide death benefits and compensation to all the families who lost a loved one. The company must restore the plant to safe conditions under the advice and jurisdiction of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Union and the community.

Nippon Dynawave is an ally of Weyerhaeuser, which operates a mile-long plant, the largest lumber mill in the world, right next to Nippon. Weyerhaeuser operated the Nippon mill until selling it to Nippon in 2016 because pulp and paper making wasn’t profitable enough. Weyerhaeuser is one of the largest landowners in the U.S. Washington State highway maps call a huge section of southwestern Washington opposite Longview the “Weyerhaeuser Tree Farm” where the company clear-cuts trees. Nippon and Weyerhaeuser have been pumping profits out of Longview for years.

Longview was founded as a company town in the 1920s under the baronage of R.A. Long who owned the Long-Bell Lumber Company and just about everything else in Longview. Today it confronts the ownership of two industry behemoths, Nippon Dynawave and Weyerhaeuser.

.