Diane Wilson, a fisherwoman from Seadrift Texas, has spent years trying to protect Lavaca Bay from petrochemical pollution. She won the largest ever penalty in a citizen clean water lawsuit using three years of painstakingly collected plastic pellets as evidence.
Sharon Lavigne is fighting for the survival of her small black community in St James Parish, Louisiana, which Formosa has targeted for a massive new plastics plant. The Army Corps of Engineers, under threat of a lawsuit, suspended Formosa's permit while they consider siting the plant in previously rejected white communities. Whether St James will receive more pollution or a measure of environmental justice currently rests in President Biden's hands.
Formosa is a Taiwanese plastic company with several US plants and a long history of disregard for the safety of workers and the environment.