Waterkeeper Moves to Intervene in Texas’ Lawsuit Over Dow Chemical’s Plastic Pollution

Today, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper (SABEW), represented by Earthjustice and Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), filed a petition to intervene in Texas’ lawsuit against Union Carbide, Dow Hydrocarbons, and Braskem.

The petition is being filed because SABEW’s participation in the lawsuit is necessary to ensure real and lasting improvements at the 4,700-acre Dow Seadrift, Texas plastics production complex, where SABEW and the State of Texas have documented habitual plastic pollution.

“I have watched plastic pellets pour out of that plant and into our waterways for years. It is unbelievable,” said Diane Wilson, executive director of San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper and lifelong Seadrift resident. “We are intervening to make sure this case actually cleans up the mess Dow has made and commits the company to zero discharge of plastic pellets from their facility into the bay.”

In December, SABEW submitted a Notice of Intent to Sue the three plastics companies at the Seadrift facility, notifying them that SABEW planned to file a citizen suit against them under the federal Clean Water Act. Then, before SABEW could file suit, the Texas Attorney General’s office filed its own lawsuit against Union Carbide, Dow Hydrocarbons, and Braskem, in Texas state court on February 13. Now, SABEW is seeking to intervene in the state’s case against the three companies, to present evidence and pursue a robust outcome through the lawsuit.

“For too long, Union Carbide, Dow Hydrocarbons, and Braskem have operated in habitual noncompliance, treating the waterways of coastal Texas as its private dump for microplastics,” said Laura Thoms, Enforcement Director for Earthjustice. “The state’s lawsuit acknowledges dozens of violations but risks becoming a shield rather than a sword for the community. We are intervening to make sure this litigation delivers what the people of Seadrift and San Antonio Bay deserve: a permanent end to plastic pollution from the plant and real accountability for its years of illegal pollution.”

The companies’ Texas wastewater permit allows for the discharge of no more than “trace amounts” of “floating solids.” Despite this limit, Diane Wilson and SABEW’s waterkeepers have observed and collected millions of pellets around the facility. In fact, on a single day of sampling on New Year’s Eve 2025, Diane and her team collected millions of pellets from an embankment on the Victoria Barge Canal less than two miles from the Seadrift facility.

Instead of properly operating and maintaining the facility and updating its pollution controls, Dow recently asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for a lax permit that would grant permission to dump plastic products directly into the bay. If granted, this would be a first-of-its-kind permit in Texas. 

Yet, TCEQ had ordered the plant to stop discharging plastic pellets in a 2021 administrative order, and TCEQ investigations in 2023 and January 2026 documented that plastic pellets were still being discharged.

“The owners of the Seadrift plastics plant must be made to clean up the damage they’ve caused to Texas waterways by years of unfettered dumping of microplastics,” said Mary Greene, Director of Enforcement for the Environmental Integrity Project. “The lawsuit filed by the state alleges serious violations and we are intervening to make sure the outcome results in full cleanup of the mess, additional projects to benefit local waterways, and improvements at the plant to prevent future violations.”

This petition for intervention follows SABEW’s landmark lawsuit against Formosa Plastics, a neighboring chemical complex, for chronic discharges of plastic pellets. That lawsuit resulted in a 2019 settlement that has since required Formosa to pay millions in penalties, fund cleanup projects, and provide wastewater testing. The settlement also called for zero discharge of plastic pellets from Formosa Plastics’ facility — an outcome SABEW is also seeking in the case against Dow.