How Diking District 1 flushed spilled white liquor from Longview sloughs
Diluting the white liquor that spilled into Longview's ditches the day of the Nippon Dynawave tank rupture took every source of water that the local diking district manager could scrounge.
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The diluting process ended last week as discharge from the mill to the sloughs stopped, and pH levels remained safe.
Amy Blain, the district manager for Cowlitz County Consolidated Diking Improvement District 1, said she worked with different entities and pooled together typically overlooked water sources into the ditch in the days after May 26.
She described pumping in the contents of old logging lagoons and even water from Lake Sacajawea in the aftermath of the deadly chemical spill.
However, the bulk of the fresh water brought into the 35 miles of ditches was about 5,000 gallons per minute from the Cowlitz River after the city of Longview opened up its fire hydrants. She said the goal was to add "as much water as we could."
"Because otherwise the pumps wouldn't have enough water to even operate," Blain said.
Nearby Weyerhaeuser opened its fire suppression system to the tune of another 700 gallons per minute, but the ditch system's seven pump stations still only hovered around minimum setpoints - if not below them, according to Blain.
The involved tank in Longview was rated to hold 900,000 gallons, and was roughly two-thirds full at the time it failed at 7:18 a.m. May 26, according to an update from the multi-agency Joint Information Center, which includes resources from the Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. According to earlier news reports, the chemical entered the ditch system through the company's stormwater drains.
The Nippon Dynawave Packaging plant makes cardboard used in liquid packaging, such as milk cartons and paper coffee cups, along with other raw pulp materials that later get finished into other paper products, such as filters and puppy training pads.
A fraction of those chemicals entered the diking system immediately after the tank ruptured, and a small amount reached the Columbia River before the pumps were shut off.
WEB_ONLY_#25890_060426_LNG_Ongoing_water_pH_monitoring
This map shows where officials were monitoring pH levels in area drainage ditches. Flushing of these sloughs ended on Thursday, June 4, while an environmental consultant continues to monitor pH levels in some of them.
Elevated pH levels were reported in parts of the ditch system in the days following the spill, but within the diking system, tests conducted since at least May 30 have shown within normal ranges.
Further, environmental officials highlight that the city of Longview does not draw from the ditch system for its drinking water, but from an aquifer 200 feet below the surface.
The city worked to prevent contaminants from reaching its wells. The water treatment plant is also equipped with continuous monitors that shut down the system before contaminated water reaches faucets, leaders reported.
More than 2,000 dead fish have been recovered from the ditch system since the chemical spill, but most died at the time of the incident and later started to surface; they aren't continuing to die, according to updates.
Fish
Dead bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed sunfish, redside shiner, northern pikeminnow, largescale sucker, bridgelip sucker are collected after the May 26 fatal chemical spill at Nippon in Longview.
How the system normally works
On a typical day in late May, according to Blain, water in the ditch system would be too low to run any pumps.
The 35 miles of ditches that ring the perimeter of Longview, and the seven pump stations connected to them, are primarily designed to prevent flooding in the area during the winter stormwater season.
At its peak, the system can pump about 1 billion gallons per day, which Blain described as enough to empty Lake Sacajawea nine times in a single day.
During winter rains, no pumps are held in reserve.
"In a big (storm) event, I'm full bore trying to move water out of the system," Blain said.
Memorial Park Drive
EPA workers inspect the slough at Memorial Park Drive on Monday, June 1 in Longview.
It's different in the summer months. With the exception of a lift station at the 48th Avenue pump station, there are few parts of the system that she can directly control by late spring and early summer.
"Everything in our system is hydraulically connected," Blain said.
The pump system operates on different set points based on parameters such as the water's "surface elevation" or level. If the water level rises, a second pump at the station will automatically kick on, and when the level falls, the pump can shut down. Generally, the water flows east to west.
Consolidated Diking Improvement District 1
Consolidated Diking Improvement District 1
Signs of life
Blain said a drone flyover of the ditch system conducted last week appears to show signs it is gradually returning to normal.
She acknowledged that there are some visual signs of lingering contamination in the footage, but said she was relieved to see wildlife such as ducks and "lots of carp" - even in Ditch 5, close to the heavily affected Industrial Way pump station.
"That was encouraging to see," Blain said.
Ducks
A family of ducks swims in the slough on Monday, June 1, east of Coal Creek Road, in Longview.
An environmental consultant has been brought in to do a more thorough assessment, which will take several months to complete.
In Blain's eyes, however, the drone footage appears to be positive, and in many places, "it looks normal." It's too soon to be certain, but she believes she sees signs that the waterway has stabilized.
"I don't see any long-term damage," Blain said.
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