The death toll from a ruptured chemical tank in the US state of Washington rose to 11 as teams recovered the bodies of nine missing people, authorities said on Saturday.
Two deaths have been confirmed after the tank containing “white liquor” – a chemical solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide used in the manufacture of paper pulp – imploded at a Nippon Dynawave Packaging plant on Tuesday.
The search for the missing continued all week as recovery crews worked through debris in interior areas and flew the perimeter of the site with drones, said Kurt Stitch, deputy chief of Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue.
The ruptured tank contained about 900,000 gallons (3.4 million liters) of white liquor, and tests confirmed that the contamination had entered the nearby Columbia River, officials said, although no “adverse health impacts” were detected on the city of Longview’s air quality or drinking water.
Nippon Paper Industries, Japan’s second-largest paper maker by sales, acquired the Longview mill from Seattle-based forestry company Weyerhaeuser for $225 million and established wholly-owned subsidiary Nippon Dynawave Packaging in 2016.
