Lavaca Bay

By Shannon Kelleher

As world leaders work on a global treaty to address mounting harms from plastics pollution, a Texas plastics plant seen as a “serial” corporate polluter is in the crosshairs of environmentalists who say the operation provides a prime example of the need for a halt to petrochemical development.

The Formosa Point Comfort Plant on the Central Texas Coast has achieved notoriety for its persistence in defying efforts to rein in pollution, illegally dumping plastic pellets into area waterways for decades, environmental advocates say.

The facility racked up more than $23 million in fines as of Nov. 12 for failure to comply with a 2019 consent decree requiring it to achieve “zero discharge” of plastic waste and clean up nearby waterways, according to records provided by the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper.

The records indicate that the plant has committed more than 700 violations of the consent decree and the restrictions of its state permit by discharging plastic waste since the consent decree went into effect, including over 140 violations this year alone.

“We can confidently say that they’re discharging plastic every single day into the bay,” said Diane Wilson, a Waterkeeper member and former fisherwoman who was arrested in August for protesting at Formosa’s US headquarters in New Jersey. “And if Formosa’s doing it, you can bet that all the other plastic plants out there, they’re discharging plastic,” she said.

Protesters plan to gather outside the Texas Formosa facility next week to highlight the plant’s ongoing environmental violations and to urge President Biden to issue a moratorium on petrochemical development in the final days of his term. Activists also are planning a similar rally outside the Formosa Plastics US headquarters in New Jersey. They also plan to march outside the branch locations of Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo to highlight their “financing of major plastic polluters.”

The activists are also opposing a proposed expansion of the facility in Point Comfort, as well as a planned PVC plant expansion in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a huge petrochemical complex the Formosa plans to build in St James Parish, Louisiana, a community infamously nicknamed “Cancer Alley” for its high cancer rates. Additionally, they are calling for an independent study to assess any lingering pollution from a Formosa chemical spill in Vietnam, and the release of Vietnamese activists who spoke out after the incident.