{"id":168872,"date":"2026-02-18T00:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/168872\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T00:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:17:10","slug":"texas-alleges-habitual-non-compliance-of-wastewater-rules-at-dow-chemical-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/168872\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Alleges \u2018Habitual Non-Compliance\u2019 of Wastewater Rules at Dow Chemical Complex\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Attorney General\u2019s office filed a lawsuit Friday afternoon against Dow Chemical Co., North America\u2019s largest chemical manufacturer, describing hundreds of water pollution violations from its industrial complex on the rural Gulf Coast in Seadrift.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the state\u2019s 46-page lawsuit<\/a> followed a 60-day notice of intent<\/a> to sue filed in December by a local environmental activist, the lawsuit could actually shield Dow and two other companies by superseding litigation by the citizen group seeking tougher cleanup provisions under the Clean Water Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s lawsuit said Dow, its subsidiary Union Carbide and the Brazilian petrochemical manufacturer Braskem \u201chave been in habitual non-compliance\u201d with pollution permits at their chemical manufacturing complex in Seadrift, 80 miles northeast of Corpus Christi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The companies \u201chave violated, and continue to violate, the Texas Water Code, the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act, and regulations and permits\u201d since at least 2020 through hundreds of described violations including unauthorized discharge of waste, unauthorized disposal of industrial solid waste and failure to report violations, the lawsuit says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Union Carbide Corp., which has operated the Seadrift complex since the 1950s, said in a statement the company \u201cworks closely with state and federal regulators to ensure compliance with all existing laws and regulations. While UCC cannot comment on the specifics of pending litigation, the company is committed to responsible operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diane Wilson, the activist from Seadrift who filed the notice of intent<\/a> to sue Dow for water pollution on Dec.17, called the state\u2019s lawsuit \u201ca sweetheart deal with industry.\u201d She said it was \u201cmuch weaker than our intended Clean Water suit both on compliance and finding a solution to the decades of plastic pollution pouring from that facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Diane\"DianeDiane Wilson with her 17-year-old boat captain, Rusty, on the Victoria Barge Canal on Feb. 1. Credit: Dylan Baddour\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n

Members of Wilson\u2019s nonprofit, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, spent the past year collecting evidence of Dow\u2019s chronic plastic pollution into local waterways.
\u201cIt\u2019s just everywhere you look,\u201d Wilson, 78, said in early February as she ducked through brush on the banks of the Victoria Barge Canal, pointing out the millions of plastic pellets that had mixed with the sediment over decades. \u201cIt is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a wooded embankment of dredging spoils from the 1950s, she kicked her sneakers through spots where the earth appeared to be made of plastic. She\u2019s seen it flowing from the wastewater outfalls at Dow\u2019s plant, she said.<\/p>\n

Citizen Lawsuits<\/p>\n

The Clean Water Act allows citizens to file lawsuits alleging violations of environmental law when regulators fail to act. It required citizens planning to sue to file a notice of intent with 60 days notice, during which time the company can come into compliance or the state can act to correct violations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the state files its own lawsuit, the citizens are legally precluded from filing their own, unless the state fails to diligently prosecute that lawsuit,\u201d said Josh Kratka, managing attorney at the National Environmental Law Center in Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common tactic used by Texas and other states \u201cto prevent citizens from doing their own citizen lawsuits,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, he represented a community group in Port Arthur in a 60-day notice of intent to sue<\/a> a nearby Valero refinery in 2019. Fifty-eight days later, Texas filed its own lawsuit that was \u201calmost a word-for-word copy of our notice letter.\u201d The case has since in court, he said.<\/p>\n

In some of Kratka\u2019s cases, he said, he learned during discovery that companies approached state authorities and requested they file a complaint that would preclude citizen lawsuits. He\u2019s even seen companies and regulators negotiating the content of a prospective lawsuit, he said.<\/p>\n

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In Wilson\u2019s notice of intent to sue Dow, she was represented by nonprofit lawyers with the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice.<\/p>\n

Mary Green, the Environmental Integrity Project\u2019s director of enforcement, said in a statement that her organization intends \u201cto remain actively involved in this case to make sure that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality does its job and requires real and substantial improvements at the plant to permanently stop the dumping of plastic waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, Wilson sued another local chemical complex, Formosa Plastics, for chronic, unauthorized discharges of plastic waste, and won a landmark settlement agreement in 2019. It has required Formosa to pay out well over $100 million<\/a> for penalty payments, cleanup projects, wastewater testing and ongoing pollution violations.<\/p>\n

Texas vs. Dow<\/p>\n

Dow\u2019s Seadrift complex spans 4,700 acres in Calhoun County. It produces polyethylene and polyester plastics, glycols for antifreeze and other chemicals for cosmetics, cleaning products and paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 Feb. 13 lawsuit, filed in Travis County District Court, said Dow reported releasing plastic pellets into local waterways, which is not authorized by any of its permits, on 37 days between July 2020 and July 2021. It said TCEQ investigators visited the site in January 2026 and \u201csaw plastic pellets onshore, in debris, or freely floating on the water\u2019s surface in the Victoria Barge Canal in and around the Facility\u2019s Outfalls as well as in and along the Union Carbide Canal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Polyethylene\"Polyethylene<\/p>\n

\"Polyethylene\"PolyethylenePolyethylene pellets are mixed into the dirt along a wooded embankment of the Victoria Barge Canal. According to Diane Wilson, it is the result of decades of unauthorized plastic discharge from Dow\u2019s chemical manufacturing complex in Seadrift. Credit: Dylan Baddour\/Inside Climate News <\/p>\n

In over 100 bullet points, the lawsuit described chronic violations of permitted limits for bacteria levels, acidity, chlorine, oil and grease, temperature and carbon chemicals in Dow\u2019s wastewater discharge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, on July 12, 2021, the facility discharged approximately 3,600 gallons of waste from the process resin recovery pit through the storm sewer hub, which then discharged to the Victoria Barge Canal, the lawsuit said. On January 31, 2023, the facility discharged approximately 15,500 gallons of frac tank wash water containing triethanolamine into the storm sewer hub, which flows into the Victoria Barge Canal. On March 17, 2025, \u201ca leak in the monoethanolamine transfer line discharged to the storm sewer,\u201d which flowed to the Victoria Barge Canal.<\/p>\n

The Victoria Barge Canal connects to San Antonio Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also alleged chronic failures to report concentrations in its wastewater. For example, the lawsuit said, Dow failed to file timely reports of concentrations of -3,4-benzofluoranthene from Outfall 001 and concentrations of -hexachlorobutadiene from Outfall 002 for the month of August 2022. Both are chemical byproducts and suspected carcinogens.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit ordered Dow to immediately \u201ccease any and all unauthorized discharges\u201d and to \u201cimplement and comply with all provisions\u201d of its permits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within 60 days, it said, the company should identify and clean up all solid waste, including plastic pellets, in the land and waters surrounding the facility, including the Victoria Barge Canal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also said the company must commission an independent audit of its unauthorized discharges and wastewater management practices then submit it to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

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Thank you,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Dylan\"Dylan<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDylan Baddour\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tReporter, Austin<\/p>\n

Dylan Baddour covers the energy sector and environmental justice in Texas. Born in Houston, he\u2019s worked the business desk at the Houston Chronicle, covered the U.S.-Mexico border for international outlets and reported for several years from Colombia for media like The Washington Post, BBC News and The Atlantic. He also spent two years investigating armed groups in Latin America for the global security department at Facebook before returning to Texas journalism. Baddour holds bachelor\u2019s degrees in journalism and Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He has lived in Argentina, Kazakhstan and Colombia and speaks fluent Spanish. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Attorney General\u2019s office filed a lawsuit Friday afternoon against Dow Chemical Co., North America\u2019s largest chemical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23777,68423,68424,60462,8393,1967,68425,4960,68426,27,4479,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-168872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-clean-water-act","9":"tag-diane-wilson","10":"tag-dow","11":"tag-dow-chemical","12":"tag-environmental-justice","13":"tag-ken-paxton","14":"tag-plastic","15":"tag-plastic-pollution","16":"tag-plastics","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-attorney-general","19":"tag-texas-headlines","20":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}