JAY – Verso Paper officials are trying to identify a white particulate sediment that landed on employees’ vehicles in the parking lot Tuesday and its source, company spokesman Bill Cohen said.

“We have been unable to identify the source,” Cohen said. “We checked all our systems for unusual emissions and nothing showed up, though we know something happened.” A number of vehicles had the sediment on them, mostly on the hoods and windshields, he said. Employees were leaving work late Tuesday afternoon when they found the substance on their vehicles, he said.

It wasn’t coming off the vehicles with just soap, he said.

Mill officials have identified a solution that includes vinegar to wash the material off them, he said.

“We’re still working to identify what it is and working with a body shop to be sure when we clean the cars we don’t damage the paint, Cohen said. The mill sent letters out to employees saying they will take care of cleaning the vehicles and apologizing to workers, he said.

They have checked out all the monitoring equipment at the mill and there was no excess or unusual emissions, he said.

“As of right now, we still don’t know where it came from,” Cohen said Thursday morning.

The investigation is ongoing.