Dow lands at Texas Gulf Coast the week of its Union Carbide plastic pollution suit

Dow flew from Baton Rouge to Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport on June 8, a 42-minute hop that landed N892D, the company's Bombardier CRJ-900, at the doorstep of its Seadrift chemical complex. The flight arrived the same week the Texas Attorney General's office is pursuing a lawsuit against Dow subsidiary Union Carbide, alleging hundreds of water pollution violations at the 4,700-acre facility, per a February filing in Travis County District Court cited by the Texas Tribune. Separately, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is weighing a Dow permit amendment that would effectively legalize discharges of plastic pellets into waterways feeding San Antonio Bay, a move environmental groups call unprecedented.

The shuttle pattern is familiar: N892D has made five round trips between Baton Rouge and the Houston-area airport since May 5, a route that mirrors Dow's supply chain between its Louisiana operations and the Gulf Coast manufacturing corridor. The aircraft's size — a 90-seat regional jet — is unusual for a corporate fleet, but Dow uses it to move engineering teams between its sprawling chemical plants. This week, those teams are likely focused on the Seadrift complex, where the company faces both a legal deadline and a regulatory decision that could reshape how plastics waste is managed on the Texas coast.