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The Texas Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit Friday against Dow Chemical Co., North America’s largest chemical manufacturer, describing hundreds of water pollution violations from its industrial complex on the rural Gulf Coast in Seadrift.
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While the state’s 46-page lawsuit followed a 60-day notice of intent 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.
The state’s lawsuit said Dow, its subsidiary Union Carbide and the Brazilian petrochemical manufacturer Braskem “have been in habitual non-compliance” with pollution permits at their chemical manufacturing complex in Seadrift, 80 miles northeast of Corpus Christi.
The companies “have violated, and continue to violate, the Texas Water Code, the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act, and regulations and permits” 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.
A spokesperson for Union Carbide Corp., which has operated the Seadrift complex since the 1950s, said in a statement the company “works 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.”
Diane Wilson, the activist from Seadrift who filed the notice of intent to sue Dow for water pollution on Dec.17, called the state’s lawsuit “a sweetheart deal with industry.” She said it was “much weaker than our intended Clean Water suit both on compliance and finding a solution to the decades of plastic pollution pouring from that facility.”
Members of Wilson’s nonprofit, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, spent the past year collecting evidence of Dow’s chronic plastic pollution into local waterways.
“It’s just everywhere you look,” 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. “It is unbelievable.” 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’s seen it flowing from the wastewater outfalls at Dow’s plant, she said.
Citizen lawsuits
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.
“If the state files its own lawsuit, the citizens are legally precluded from filing their own, unless the state fails to diligently prosecute that lawsuit,” said Josh Kratka, managing attorney at the National Environmental Law Center in Washington, D.C.
It’s a common tactic used by Texas and other states “to prevent citizens from doing their own citizen lawsuits,” he said.
For example, he represented a community group in Port Arthur in a 60-day notice of intent to sue a nearby Valero refinery in 2019. Fifty-eight days later, Texas filed its own lawsuit that was “almost a word-for-word copy of our notice letter.” The case has since languished in court, he said.
In some of Kratka’s cases, he said, he learned during discovery that companies approached state authorities and requested they file a complaint that would preclude citizen lawsuits. He’s even seen companies and regulators negotiating the content of a prospective lawsuit, he said.
In Wilson’s notice of intent to sue Dow, she was represented by nonprofit lawyers with the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice. Mary Green, the Environmental Integrity Project’s director of enforcement, said in a statement that her organization intends “to 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.”
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 for penalty payments, cleanup projects, wastewater testing and ongoing pollution violations.
Texas vs. Dow
Dow’s 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.
Texas’ 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 “saw plastic pellets onshore, in debris, or freely floating on the water’s surface in the Victoria Barge Canal in and around the Facility’s Outfalls as well as in and along the Union Carbide Canal.”
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’s wastewater discharge.
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, “a leak in the monoethanolamine transfer line discharged to the storm sewer,” which flowed to the Victoria Barge Canal.
The Victoria Barge Canal connects to San Antonio Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
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.
The lawsuit ordered Dow to immediately “cease any and all unauthorized discharges” and to “implement and comply with all provisions” of its permits.
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.
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.
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