About

San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper

In 2016 the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeepers began collecting pellet (nurdle) and powder samples from over twenty- miles of waterways and shoreline along Cox Creek and Lavaca/Matagorda Bays. Between January 31, 2016 and March 2019, Diane Wilson and the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeepers collected approximately 2,500 samples and took 7,000 photos/videos demonstrating that the Formosa Plastics, Point Comfort facility had repeatedly violated the federal Clean Water Act by dumping pellets and powder on an ongoing basis. In March 2019, the Clean Water suit went to Federal Court, and Judge Hoyt described Formosa as a “serial offender” and wrote that its violations of the Clean Water Act were “extensive, historical, and repetitive.”  In December 2019, U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt approved a $50 Million settlement between Formosa Plastics Corp. and plaintiffs, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper and Diane Wilson.  The agreement is the largest ever settlement of a Clean Water Act suit filed by private individuals. The settlement funded six key pollution mitigation projects near its Point Comfort, Texas facility and it also required Formosa to meet a stringent standard known as “zero discharge,” in which the Point Comfort facility must stop all discharge of plastics from its facility.