This investigation is unrelated to the May 26 fatal white liquor tank failure at the same location.

It’s one of two inspections that were opened weeks before the fatal incident.

L&I opened this inspection March 4, after a worker at the plant reported a broken valve handle on an aqua ammonia clarifier tank used to treat wastewater from the mill’s pulp and paper operations. The valve’s handle was detached, so it could not be closed.

When L&I inspectors responded to the complaint, repairs on the handle had already begun and the issue posed no safety or health risks. That was in part because workers are not regularly stationed at the wastewater treatment site. However, managers at the site could not provide documentation of required inspections and did not have a formal inspection and maintenance program for this tank and associated equipment. That broke safety rules, leading to a citation with one violation for failing to develop an inspection program and one violation for failing to maintain records. The total penalty assessed is $2,890.

Nippon Dynawave has 15 days to appeal from the date the citation was issued.

L&I’s investigation into the separate May 26 fatal tank failure is ongoing. The agency continues to have a team of investigators working at the site. By law, the department must issue findings no more than 180 days from the opening date.

There’s also an unrelated L&I investigation that the agency opened on May 6 after a drain failed and caused a sinkhole at the Nippon Dynawave Longview mill. A worker who was responding to the incident stepped into the hole that was about four-feet deep and full of hot pulp. That investigation is also still ongoing.