I'M A FOURTH-GENERATION FISHERWOMAN. In 1989, I was working in Froggy’s Shrimp Company as one of the only woman fish house managers. A shrimper came in the office and pitched a [newspaper] article on the desk. It was the first time the toxic release inventory ever was made public. It was part of the Community Right-to-Know Act. Calhoun County is a small, rural county, but we were number one in the nation for toxic disposal.

 

That information just blew me out of the water. I walked down to city hall demanding a meeting. The backlash to that simple request was how it started — and it’s been like a rolling cannonball to hell ever since. We have Alcoa, Formosa, Union Carbide, and they all dumped into the head of the bay. The head of the bay is the nursery area — yet these chemical plants are discharging there. Fishermen would bring me fish that were rolling on top of the water, alligators rolling on top of the water. Shrimp had black spots in their heads. Juvenile black drum fish had stomachs that were disintegrating.