Two weeks ago, Texas initiated legal action against a large Dow petrochemical facility for water pollution. At the same time, state environmental regulators were assessing a proposal from Dow to permit discharges of plastic materials into waters flowing into San Antonio Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
If the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) approves, this could establish a precedent for other plastics manufacturing facilities to discharge materials like polyethylene pellets and PVC powder, according to legal experts.
Dow and its subsidiary, Union Carbide Corporation, submitted a 320-page application on Jan. 4 to amend its wastewater permit. This came three weeks after a citizen group announced plans to sue the companies for unauthorized plastic pollution. TCEQ posted the proposal for public comment in February.
“Dow/UCC’s request is unprecedented,” said Rebecca Ramirez, an attorney at Earthjustice representing the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper. “No other instance of TCEQ granting such an exception is known.”
TCEQ spokesperson Richard Richter declined to comment due to ongoing litigation. State Texas sued Dow on Feb. 13 for years of alleged water pollution violations at its Seadrift complex. This lawsuit blocked the Waterkeeper’s legal action.
Dow, the largest North American chemical manufacturer, and Union Carbide did not respond to queries about the permit amendment.
The application proposes to alter language in the wastewater permit, stating current terms are “vague” and “potentially more stringent than necessary,” without specifying a new limit.
Previous Lawsuit Led to Major Settlement
In 2016, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper sued Formosa Plastics, another chemical plant nearby. The Waterkeeper successfully argued that Formosa’s discharges exceeded “trace amounts” of floating solids over decades.
“Over 100 miles of pellets and powder are buried in sand and debris,” said Ronnie Hamrick, a retired supervisor at Formosa who gathered evidence for the lawsuit. “Particles float all over the water at Lighthouse Beach.”
The group won a landmark 2019 settlement requiring Formosa to pay over $100 million for an environmental trust fund and other initiatives.
Other Waterkeeper Alliance groups reached settlements with plastics plants in South Carolina in 2021 and Pennsylvania in 2025.
In December, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper filed a 60-day legal notice to sue Dow, presenting collected plastic pellets from the Victoria Barge Canal, connecting San Antonio Bay to Dow’s Seadrift complex.
Dow Seeks to Legalize Plastic Discharge
Dow’s permit application submitted three weeks later seeks to change language prohibiting “floating solids or visible foam” discharges beyond trace amounts—a standard term in Texas wastewater permits.
Dow also requested nine other permit modifications, including increased maximum daily discharge capacity at one outfall and the release of firefighting fluids at all 16 outfalls.
Diane Wilson, founder of San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, criticized Dow’s application due to “decades of flagrant violations.”
Josh Kratka, managing attorney at the National Environmental Law Center, stated, “Microplastics discharges have been occurring for a long time, but awareness of the issue has only recently grown.”
The public can currently comment on Dow’s permit amendment, which will later be voted on by the TCEQ, appointed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Dow has contributed to Abbott’s inaugural committees and campaign, according to company disclosures.
Lawyers for San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper plan to challenge the amendment if granted, doubting it would withstand judicial scrutiny. “Clean Water Act provisions prevent backsliding,” Kratka said. “Loosening permit limits would be difficult legally.”
Original Story at insideclimatenews.org