A team of attorneys working alongside Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has scored a $50 million settlement and $3 million in attorney fees from a plastics company that's polluted coastal bays off the Gulf of Mexico for years.

The plaintiffs, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, a community group that protects the bays, and one of its leaders, Diane Wilson, and defendant Formosa Plastics Corp. entered the settlement Tuesday and submitted their consent decree to the federal government for review. Formosa has also promised to pay future attorney fees for the life of the consent decree.

"The conditions agreed to in this settlement demonstrate Formosa's commitment to manufacturing our products in a safe and environmentally friendly manner," said a statement by Formosa USA executive vice president Ken Mounger.

The $50 million Clean Water Act settlement may be the largest in the nation, said Amy Johnson, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. The highest she's seen previously was $10 million, said Johnson, an environmental law solo practitioner who has served as a paid consulting attorney at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid for five years.

She said it's very significant that Formosa agreed to bring its plastics discharges down to zero in the future.

"The mitigation that will come back to the community is huge," Johnson added.

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid spearheaded the case after learning about Formosa's pollution problem while it was surveying the area about its legal needs, said Erin Gaines, staff attorney for environmental justice at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in Austin. Most legal aid providers represent low-income individuals with single-case civil matters, and it's rare for legal aid providers to handle massive environmental justice cases. But Texas RioGrande Legal Aid is one of the few in the country that's tackled environmental work, starting with fights for poor Texans living in colonias to get safe drinking and wastewater systems, Gaines said. She said the organization has grown its environmental law practice to meet a need it saw within the community.

Left to right: Dr. Aiza Jose-Sanchez (expert witness), Bob Lindsey (representative of plaintiff Waterkeeper), Spring Beckman (paralegal), Erin Gaines, Amy Johnson, David Bright, Mike Gilmore (AV for trial), Jennifer Richards, David Frederick. Courtesy photo

The settlement comes after the plaintiffs won a court ruling in June that found Formosa was liable for widespread plastics pollution, and should be sanctioned for past violations, subjected to injunctive relief to stop future pollution. Formosa was also ordered to pay attorney fees. The parties were preparing for the second hearing in the bifurcated trial, which would have determine the remedy, when the settlement was reached.

Formosa promised in the consent decree to clean up its past pollution, and agreed to take steps to eliminate the discharge of plastics from its Point Comfort plant within the next three years.

The $50 million settlement, due in installments over the next five years, will benefit the environment and community surrounding Lavaca and Matagorda bays, which are adjacent to the coastal communities of Point Comfort and Port Lavaca. Formosa's plant in Point Comfort was the source the plastic pellets, called "nurdles," that polluted the bay systems. Nurdles are the raw material from which most plastic goods are manufactured.

Nearly $20 million will fund a nonprofit effort to create a fishing cooperative to revitalize marine ecosystems and boost the area's fishing, shrimping and oystering industries, which declined partially because of the pollution. Calhoun County will receive $12 million to develop a new park and to restore one beach where nurdles were found. Other funds will go to various nonprofits to establish outdoor and environmental education programs for children, a "Nurdle Patrol" to monitor the bays for pollution, and grant awards to people or groups to conduct conservation projects, environmental research, and habitat restoration.

Other attorneys on the plaintiffs team are David Frederick, partner in Frederick, Perales, Allmon & Rockwell in Austin, also an adjunct professor and research fellow at the University of Texas School of Law's environmental clinic; and David Bright, of counsel in Sico Hoelscher Harris in Corpus Christi.

"Our clients have been working on these issues and going out there almost daily for years, and bringing up these issues to state agencies, federal agencies, to government officials, and others," Gaines said. "They really feel like this is a turning point in terms of Formosa paying for the past pollution and all of that, but also, holding them more accountable moving forward."

Kelly Hart & Hallman partner Steve Ravel of Austin, who represented Formosa, declined to comment.

Read the settlement: