Lunch Talk on the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper v. Formosa Plastics Case

Please join the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, the Environmental & Energy Law Program, and the HLS Environmental Law Society for a lunch talk on the case San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper v. Formosa Plastics. Our featured speakers for this event will be Diane Wilson, Executive Director and Waterkeeper for Plaintiff San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, and Amy R. Johnson, who served as lead counsel on this case.

In this case, Waterkeeper sued Formosa under the federal Clean Water Act, alleging that its plant in Port Comfort, Texas, was illegally discharging millions of tiny plastic pellets, known as “nurdles,” into Lavaca Bay. Much of the evidence of Formosa’s violations came from citizen-science “Nurdle Patrol” volunteers, including Wilson, who patrolled the waters near the plant. After a federal judge held that Formosa was a “serial offender” in a landmark 2019 decision, Waterkeeper reached a settlement with Formosa that included $50 million for environmental mitigation projects—the largest mitigation penalties ever in a Clean Water Act citizen suit.

Amy Johnson will be joining us in person and Diane Wilson will be speaking on Zoom. You are welcome to watch on your own or via a livestream in WCC 2004. Grab and go lunches will be available at the end of the event.

Please contact Jacqueline Calahong at jcalahong@law.harvard.edu with any questions.