Fenceline Watch, a fiscally sponsored project of OAEC, is dedicated to the eradication of toxic multigenerational harm on communities living along the fenceline of industry, primarily along the Texas Gulf Coast. While their advocacy and organizing work seeks interventions locally, they also bring the experiences of their community to international arenas. They will be participating in the next meeting of the Global Plastics Pollution Treaty in Geneva, Switzerland, in August, building a coalition with advocates and civil society from the global south, and pushing for a comprehensive treaty that moves beyond waste management and recycling to reducing production.
Locally, Fenceline Watch policy director Shiv Srivastava was featured in the Summer 2025 issue of the Oxford American discussing the proposed HyVelocity Hydrogen Hub slated for the Houston Ship Channel. And, in May, the Fenceline Watch team organized community members to participate in the first annual International Plastic Pellet Count. Their volunteers, pictured above, collected nearly 1,000 pellets in the first 20 minutes at a wharf on the Houston Ship Channel, and their citizen science data was aggregated with hundreds of other sites around the world, helping to build a data-backed case for action to reduce the impacts of plastic production on waterways and the communities that live near them. Read here on how to organize a citizen science plastics pellet count in your local waterway.
