Two people are confirmed dead, and nine people are missing with no hope of rescue after an industrial disaster at a paper plant in Longview, Washington.
Emergency crews are now juggling their efforts to recover the victims with work to contain the environmental impact.
Emergency officials said there is no indication that the chemicals spilled at the plant made it into the drinking water supply, but it made it into several waterways. Crews are now working to get the contaminated water away from people’s homes.
Crews are flushing out hydrants in parts of the city with the goal of diluting water contaminated with white liquor, the highly corrosive chemical that spilled from an imploded vat at Longview’s Nippon Dynawave plant.
Chief Scott Goldstein of Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue said the nearby Columbia River was contaminated, as evidenced by a spike in the river’s PH level around the time of the disaster.
“PH, or the acidity level, testing of water levels has confirmed contamination entered the Columbia River during the day yesterday,” he said.
Goldstein said ditches near the plant were also contaminated. Signs are now posted nearby warning people to stay away.
“We have recovered approximately a dozen carps from the dikes that have died,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said.
Officials believe around 570,000 gallons of white liquor spilled. It is not yet clear how much of the chemical flowed into the waterways or how much remains on the plant property. Utility crews plan to use water from fire hydrants to dilute the water in the ditches, then pump it into the Columbia River.
“Additional evaluations are underway to better understand the scope and extent of that environmental impact,” Goldstein said.
In spite of all the uncertainty surrounding chemicals in the water, Ferguson said crews have been monitoring the air quality and found no cause for concern.
“Those results show no evidence of airborne contamination,” he said. “We will, of course, continue to monitor over the coming days.”
Local and state officials said they will provide another update Thursday afternoon.,