"There was definitely a difference in enforcement between fishermen and chemical plants. When was the last time Formosa or Alcoa or Union Carbide had six holstered officers come into their facility like they had at the fish house?"
That's an excerpt from a chapter in "An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politcios, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas."
Okay, we know environmentalists aren't exactly the most popular folks on the Outer Banks these days, but this book tells the story of a woman shrimper who took on Formosa Plastics' plans for a $1.3 billion expansion of their petrochemical plant near Lavaca Bay, Texas.
Diane Wilson isn't an "ivory tower" environmentalist but a shrimper running her brother's fish house and seeing first-hand the environmental and public-health consequences of water and air pollution in a county labeled "toxic" by the EPA even before Texas politicians were ready to subsidize expansion of Formosa's plant to the tune of something like $200 million.
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