LONGVIEW, Washington (From news reports) -- Another problem at Nippon Dyanwave's wastewater treatment plant has reportedly triggered paper machine shutdowns at the Longview mill and other nearby businesses.

The extent of the problem isn't clear, but employees said the issue first arose on about Thursday. It's unknown when the industrial wastewater treatment plant will be running normally again.

It was not clear Saturday how much paper production has been affected by the wastewater trouble.

"We often have upset conditions and we work through them, and we're working through them now," said Brian Wood, environmental manager at Nippon Dyanwave.

"Our focus at Nippon is as always on safe and compliant operations."

Wood declined further comment.

The treatment plant services Nippon itself as well as other industrial sites nearby, including Weyerhaeuser Co., Norpac, Axiall Corp. and Solvay Chemicals. So the treatment problem likely will have ripple effects on those businesses too.

In April and May, a problem at the wastewater plant forced Nippon and other companies to temporarily furlough employees, although Weyerhaeuser said it was unaffected.

The latest wastewater treatment troubles comes at a bad time for Norpac, which is struggling to be profitable. In October it will shut down one of its three paper machines. It reduced wages 10 percent after the last wastewater-related curtailment.

This week there were reportedly no employees furloughed yet at Nippon as workers perform cleanup and maintenance work during a temporary curtailment, according to employees. The entire mill was shut down except for the extruder department, which doesn't rely on the effluent system.

Nippon's wastewater system processes 40 million to 45 million gallons of industrial waste per day. Typically, the system uses bacteria to consume pollutants in the wastewater, which goes through a multi-staged treatment process before discharge into the Columbia River.

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