As a fourth-generation shrimper, Diane Wilson is particularly sensitive to the condition of the waters in Lavaca Bay. Wilson is so determined to stop the bay's pollution that she has gone against local public opinion to oppose a massive chemical complex that is proposed for the area. Local officials have offered the Formosa Plastics Company a $132 million tax break, expediting of environmental requirements, and the deepening of the ship channel by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Wilson founded the Calhoun County Resource Watch to make sure that citizens knew that each job created by Formosa would cost taxpayers $112,000, that Formosa Plastics had not been allowed to build this complex in their own country because it was considered too hazardous, and that a polyvinyl chloride plant operated by Formosa near the proposed complex had a long record of dangerous environmental infractions. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency had declared that Formosa's plan to build seven more plants would have "no significant impact" on local fishing grounds and on a nearby national wildlife refuge; they required no Environmental Impact Statement. Wilson fought the EPA's decision, even going on a hunger strike to convince an EPA official to meet with her.

Wilson has persevered despite the anger of local people who hope for jobs in the proposed plants. Wilson continues to press her point that the jobs being promised aren't worth the poisoning of Calhoun's air and water. Thanks to her, Formosa has been directed to file an EIS.