Diane Wilson is the Executive Director and Waterkeeper of San Antonio Bay Estuarine.
For 30 years Diane has fought Formosa’s wastewater discharge into Texas bays. For the last decade she has fought to stop Formosa Plastics Point Comfort plant from discharging illegal plastic pellets and powder into the bays. Since 2016, Diane and a group of dedicated former Formosa workers have collected over 2,500 pellet samples and 7,000 photos and videos documenting Formosa’s environmental pollution. In 2017, with the== help of Texas Riogrande Legal Aid (nonprofit legal aid), Diane filed a citizens Clean Water suit seeking penalties for Clean Water violations from Formosa and to cease their discharge and clean up the plastic pollution. In March 2019, the group went to federal court in Victoria, Texas and entered into evidence 30 large bins containing the samples. The judge ruled that Formosa was a “serial offender” with over 1800 days of violations. The group is still collecting samples and documenting the continued illegal releases after the first trial ended in March. The second trial begins October 28, 2019 to address penalties and how to cease the discharge and do cleanup and monitoring.
