Dear Friend,

On behalf of our global Waterkeeper movement, we are sending out a huge congratulations to the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners! We are especially proud of the winner from North America, our very own San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper Diane Wilson! 

Diane is being recognized for her phenomenal December 2019 win of 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 U.S. Clean Water Act. As a part of the settlement, Formosa Plastics agreed to reach “zero-discharge” of plastic waste from its Point Comfort factory, pay penalties until discharges cease, and fund remediation of affected local wetlands, beaches, and waterways. 

The Goldman Environmental Prize, which is like a Nobel Prize for environmental advocacy, honors ordinary people who make an extraordinary impact. Diane, and her fellow 2023 winners, have an outsized impact on our life on this planet and follow a long line of the Goldman Prize’s exemplary changemakers. It has been a privilege to witness Diane's tireless commitment to protecting her waterways and community against the threats of corporate polluters and other dangers.

I’ll be heading to The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., along with local Waterkeepers and others, to support Diane and her fellow winners in person on Wednesday, April 26th. We’ll be sharing content from this special evening on social media and will report in our next issues of Waterkeeper Weekly and Currents. 

Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of Diane and her fellow award winners:

✨Chilekwa Mumba (Zambia)
✨Zafer Kizilkaya (Turkey)
✨Tero Mustonen (Finland)
✨Delima Silalahi (Indonesia)
✨Alessandra Korap Munduruku (Brazil) 

In the meantime, I encourage you to visit goldprize.org/2023 to learn more about these six phenomenal grassroots environmental leaders who prove that ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact on the planet. 
 

To clean water,

Marc Yaggi
Chief Executive Officer