Did You Know - Formosa Plastics Is A Serial Pollutor?

Dear Editor,

On August 2, I was arrested along with Diane Wilson and others when we blocked entrances to Formosa Plastics’ U.S.A headquarters in your town of Livingston. This was covered by Patch and New Jersey Spotlight News. Four of us are choosing to head to trial, with the goal of shining a light on Formosa Plastics’ long record of perpetrating environmental injustice.
Diane is a fourth-generation fisherwoman, Executive Director of the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, and a Goldman Environmental Prize Winner who won a landmark case against Formosa Plastics, one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies, for the illegal dumping of toxic plastic waste on Texas’ Gulf Coast. The $50 million settlement is the largest award in a citizen suit against an industrial polluter in the history of the US Clean Water Act. Texas activists Matthew Kennedy and Robin Schneider are our co-defendants. I live in Teaneck, NJ, and taught elementary school in NYC for 44 years.
The campus of Formosa Plastics in your town is lovely. One would never know that this corporation has harmed the lives of many thousands of workers and residents and has harmed the environment in Texas, Louisiana, Cambodia, Vietnam, and elsewhere. Despite the $50 million court settlement, Formosa Plastics continues to be a serial polluter.
Whether you work at FP or live in Livingston, please take time to read about FP (www.formosa4.org ). Think about what you can do to demand that Formosa Plastic immediately stop polluting, cancel the proposed expansion in Point Comfort, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, cancel the new plant in Saint James Parish, Louisiana, and call for the release of activists from prison in Vietnam.

Paula Rogovin, co-chair, Food and Water Watch, North Jersey Volunteer Team