The Nippon Dynawave mill in Longview, Washington was fined $77,800 by the Washington Department of Labor & Industries for safety violations after a worker nearly became completely engulfed in extremely hot pulp in March 2026.
The incident began when a tank valve was left open, causing approximately 3,400 gallons of hot pulp to flow onto the ground for about two hours, creating a sinkhole in the asphalt. A worker waded through the pulp, which was approximately 145 degrees Fahrenheit and 3 feet deep, to close the valve. When he tried to step back down, he fell into a 4-foot sinkhole. Inspectors said if he had not grabbed onto a pipe, he would have been completely engulfed in more than 7 feet of pulp.
The agency cited Nippon Dynawave for failing to protect workers from exposure to extremely hot material and from engulfment hazards. The company also was cited for failing to include the paper machine pulp system in a hazardous materials piping safety program as required.
Mill managers told the agency that spills like this happen once every couple of months or more often, and they were aware that workers had waded through pulp to open and close tank valves. The temperature of pulp from the tank can range between 125 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
"The problem wasn't that the overspill happened, it's that Nippon management chose to send people into the pulp to deal with it," said Cari Anderson, deputy assistant director for the Department of Labor & Industries' Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
Since the incident, management has agreed to instruct workers not to enter pulp spill areas in the future and to develop procedures and engineering controls to close valves without exposing employees, according to inspectors.
The company has 15 days to appeal from the date the citation was issued.