Nippon Dynawave fined USD 77,000 over Longview near-miss as third wrongful death suit is filed
Washington's Department of Labor and Industries has fined Nippon Dynawave USD 77,000 for a willful serious violation after a worker nearly sank into hot pulp at its Longview mill in March 2026, months before a white liquor tank failure there killed 11 workers. Nippon disputes the willful classification and intends to appeal. Separately, the estates of two of the workers killed filed the third wrongful death suit over the May 2026 tank failure on 23 October. The suit names Nippon and former owner Weyerhaeuser, which denies responsibility.
Why this mattersA citation for a pre-collapse incident and a growing set of wrongful death suits extend the regulatory and litigation exposure from the Longview mill's safety record.
- L&I citation issued 29 October 2026 carries a USD 77,000 fine over a March 2026 incident in which a worker waded through 145-degree pulp and fell into a sinkhole
- Nippon Dynawave disagrees with the 'willful serious' classification and intends to appeal
- On 26 May 2026 a 1.2 million-gallon tank failed and released 900,000 gallons of caustic white liquor, killing 11 workers
- The third wrongful death suit was filed on 23 October 2026 in Cowlitz County Superior Court by the estates of Dillon Andrew Miller and Clinton Lee Doran Jr.
- The suit alleges contractor inspections in July 2025, October 2025 and February 2026 found tank shell sections below minimum safe thickness; Weyerhaeuser, which built the tank in 1987 and sold the mill in 2016, denies responsibility
- L&I has investigated more than a dozen safety complaints at the mill since 2018; over USD 2.4m in workers' compensation claims has been paid for 169 injured employees since 2015