HOUSTON, TX – Fourth-generation Texas shrimper and Goldman Prize Winner Diane Wilson was arrested this morning at Dow Chemical’s Seadrift manufacturing facility, on the 25th day of her ongoing hunger strike to protest the company’s egregious environmental harms to San Antonio Bay and the surrounding community.
“I’ve watched these waters my entire life. I’ve watched the plastic pour into them. Now, Dow wants a permit to keep on doing it – but much more than before. They want to legalize plastic pollution. I’m not going to eat until they stop,” said Wilson, who is the Executive Director of San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper (SABEW). “This bay belongs to the people of Texas, not to Dow Chemical.”
Wilson was attempting to hand-deliver a formal demand letter (which has been signed by more than fifty organizations) to the chemical facility’s site director for him to then forward to Dow CEO Jim Fitterling. This is the second time Wilson has tried to deliver the letter in person, following an earlier attempt on March 10th together with her colleague Dan Lê. Wilson also mailed the letter to Dow’s headquarters in Midland, Michigan, and has continued her hunger strike for weeks, yet SABEW has received no response from Dow.
When ordered to leave the property by Dow security today, Wilson refused to do so until she could give the letter directly to the site director, at which point sheriff’s officers arrived to arrest her.
Wilson is demanding that Dow:
- Commit to zero discharge of plastic pellets, powder, and flakes from its Seadrift facility and incorporate that commitment into its operating permit; and
- Cancel all plans to build nuclear reactors at the site and withdraw its construction permit application from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Wilson has said that she will not end her hunger strike until both demands are met. She plans to continue her hunger strike while in the Calhoun County Jail.
Activist Dan Lê disrupts Dow CEO Fitterling’s panel at CERAWeek in Houston
Separately, in Houston, fellow SABEW organizer Dan Lê disrupted Dow CEO Jim Fitterling’s speech at the plenary session of CERAWeek – an oil and gas conference hosted by S&P Global, which has been called the “Superbowl of the energy industry.” Though hailed by S&P Global as “a leading voice in sustainability,” Fitterling has overseen Dow as it continues to expand petrochemical operations in Texas and elsewhere, while simultaneously advocating for false solutions that do not address the root causes of these interconnected environmental and public health crises.
Neither Fitterling nor any Dow representatives have responded to SABEW’s letter regarding the plastic pellet pollution and the proposed nuclear reactors.
“Jim Fitterling, why do you not answer our message from Diane Wilson?” asked Lê during the CEO’s plenary session at CERAWeek. “She’s out there in front of Dow waiting for a response for your plastic pollution.”
“When a 77-year-old woman from this community puts her life on the line outside your front gate and you don’t even respond, that tells you everything you need to know about how Dow sees people in the community,” Lê added. “It’s like we don’t exist. So we have to make ourselves seen and heard.”
Public Meeting Announced Regarding Dow’s Water Discharge Permit
Dow’s Seadrift facility manufactures pre-production plastic pellets called “nurdles,” a raw material used in the production of plastic consumer goods. The facility’s existing state permit allows for the discharge of no more than “trace amounts” of “floating solids.” Despite this limit, SABEW waterkeepers have observed and collected millions of nurdles in and along local waterways around the facility on a near-constant basis. On a single day, SABEW collected millions of pellets in one spot in the Victoria Barge Canal which flows into San Antonio Bay.
Rather than upgrade its pollution controls to comply with its existing permit, Dow has asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to rewrite the rules, arguing that “trace amounts” is too vague and that Dow should instead be explicitly permitted to discharge plastics into the bay. Dow proposed no replacement limit. If granted, the permit would be the first of its kind.
An estimated one billion pounds of nurdles enter the world’s oceans each year.
In response to over 200 requests for a public meeting, the TCEQ has finally announced that they will schedule a public meeting regarding Dow’s application for a water discharge permit. The application is currently in technical review and the public meeting will be scheduled when a draft permit has been prepared. Activity related to the application may be found here, and the pending wastewater application and available notices may be found here.
SABEW is urging community members in the area to attend the meeting and raise concerns about Dow’s rampant water pollution, and to encourage the TCEQ not to approve the new permit application, which would have disastrous implications for the regulation of plastic pollution into waterways and the residents who rely on them.
Dow's permit amendment is not the only plan the company is advancing at the Seadrift site. The company is also seeking permits to build four nuclear reactors on the same site through its subsidiary, Long Mott Energy LLC, using a reactor design with no conventional steel-reinforced concrete containment structure, unlike every existing U.S. nuclear plant. The reactors would generate high-level nuclear waste to be stored on-site at the Seadrift facility indefinitely.
Background
On December 17, 2025, Earthjustice and Environmental Integrity Project, on behalf of SABEW, issued a Notice of Intent to Sue Dow under the Clean Water Act’s citizen suit provision, which allows the public to take legal action when regulators fail to enforce the law. On February 13, 2026 – one business day before SABEW’s planned federal filing – the State of Texas filed its own lawsuit against Dow, citing “habitual” illegal water pollution violations. Under the Clean Water Act, a state lawsuit can block a citizen suit, even if the state’s action seeks weaker penalties. SABEW believes the timing was not coincidental.
Perales, Allmon & Ice, PC, an Austin law firm, is representing SABEW and has successfully intervened before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, challenging Dow’s pending construction permit application.
Additional Quotes:
“As a fellow Coastal Bend resident who is tired of having their community taken over and ravaged by uncaring, polluting corporations and has also engaged in civil disobedience, I stand in resolute solidarity with Diane Wilson. Diane has demonstrated for decades now that she is willing to put her body on the line to stop the worst of harms committed by Formosa, Exxon, and now Dow. Her selfless actions throughout the years have made it more possible for the plight and resistance of other Gulf South communities to be seen and receive support. We owe her an immense debt of gratitude and publicly pledging our support for this hunger strike is the least we can do.” – Chloe Torres, Texas Campaign for the Environment Coastal Bend Regional Coordinator
MEDIA CONTACTS
Matthew Kennedy, matthew@texasenvironment.org, (254) 389-0137
Jenny Espino, jenny@texasenvironment.org, (361) 400-0314, ext. 4001
Notes to the editor:
- Photos and video are available here.
- Background materials are available upon request.
