After paper mill disaster, Longview community rallies around fundraising efforts while long-term questions loom

A line of attendees snaked around the parking lot of Bob’s Sporting Goods in downtown Longview on Saturday. That’s where community members gathered for a barbecue fundraiser for the families of the employees killed in the chemical spill at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company earlier in the week.

Organizer Rose Scattergood runs the nonprofit Big Smoke Barbecue with her husband in the nearby town of Kalama.

Paper mills are integral to Longview, she said.

“This is what feeds our families. This is what puts our kids through college. And it’s been like that for decades,” Scattergood said. “It just is hard to swallow when a big tragedy like this happens.”

On the morning of May 26, a large tank at the Nippon facility ruptured. It contained hundreds of thousands of gallons of the caustic chemical known as “white liquor,” which is used in the paper-making process. Eleven people died, and several others were injured. It took emergency responders days to recover the employees’ bodies from the precarious site.

The incident was especially deadly because it happened when crews were changing shifts, so there were more people in the area than usual, according to officials.

For Scattergood, the tragedy at the paper mill has created existential worries about the Longview-Kelso community.

“It kind of makes people wonder what’s going to come of this and what does our future look like for Longview and the paper industry and the mills,” she said.

The Nippon paper mill is a major employer in the city. Most people in the community are connected by one or two degrees of separation from someone involved in the tragedy.

Frank Mazna trucked in the 23-foot barbecue he uses for his catering business, Smokin Frank’s BBQ, in La Center for Saturday’s fundraiser. His godson works at the paper mill. He recalled an initial conversation after hearing about the tank rupture.

“The first thing I found out, it’s like, ‘Was Colton working today?’ It’s like, ‘Yeah.’ ‘Was he involved?’ ‘He’s on the other side of the mill when it happened.’ ‘Thank God.’” Mazna recalled. I feel bad for saying that, but it’s like, I don’t want him to get hurt. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Before catering, Mazna retired from a career with the Vancouver Fire Department.

“This’ll be one of those events that they’ll talk about for 50 years,” he said. “This is a big deal.”

Joel Fenter was also at the barbecue. He lives in Kelso and works at the Weyerhaeuser sawmill adjacent to the Nippon paper mill.

“It’s been pretty rough,” Fenter said. “I lost a former coworker. He was one of the ones that died. I have two friends that were injured pretty bad. They were in the shop and tried to pull people out.”

One of his sons used to work at the Nippon paper mill, Fenter said. Each morning, he would park his car right next to where the chemical tank ruptured.

The mill is currently closed while the cause of the rupture is being investigated. In a May 31 letter, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, WA-3, asked Nippon Dynawave President Matt Peerboom for confirmation that employees will be compensated for the duration of the investigation, which could take months. In the letter, she noted that the company initially said it would pay employees.

“Since then, Nippon has seemed to walk back that commitment, telling workers they’ll only be paid through June 7,” Gluesenkamp Perez wrote.

A representative from Nippon Dynawave did not respond to OPB’s questions about employee pay, but the union representing mill workers said in a press release Wednesday that workers would continue to be compensated through “at least August 8, 2026.”

When one of Longview’s wood products companies shuts down, even temporarily, it creates a ripple effect on nearby businesses, Fenter said.

“With Nippon down, they provide steam to NORPAC [North Pacific Paper Company], the paper mill next door. Without that steam, NORPAC has all but one of their paper machines shut down now. I work at Weyerhaeuser, and 100% of the chips from the logs we saw go to Nippon,” he said.

The sawmills and paper mills are all part of that ecosystem, said Terry Carlson, the president of the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central Labor Council. The council supports local trade unions and has also been collecting money for the families of the victims in last week’s chemical spill.

Carlson said the Nippon paper mill provides good family-wage union jobs in Longview. Now, the community is faced with the double-edged sword of wanting accountability for the incident while hoping they don’t lose one of the town’s main employers.

“Mills are shutting down left and right, so that’s the last thing we want is this tragedy to lead to a mill shutdown,” Carlson said.