Neil Carman: on a mission to stop pollution one citizen victory at a time
by Vicki Wolf, April 2007

It can sound like a David and Goliath story: citizens take on industry giants to defend their homes and families from toxic pollution. But, with Dr. Neil Carman on their side, citizens have a fighting chance.

Carman’s case history of citizen victories includes the prevention of hazardous waste being burned in cement kilns in Ada, Oklahoma as well as in New Branfels and Midlothian, Texas. With Carman’s help Galveston Bay citizens halted the building of a new copper smelter in Galveston Bay and Eagle Pass avoided being ravaged by a coal strip mine. The citizens of Corsicana don’t have to wake up to the stench of a rendering plant and the families living in Sierra Blanca don’t live in fear of accidents from a nuclear waste dump that was never built, thanks to Carman’s work. The list goes on, and Carman, who provides much consultation pro bono, intends to continue this work.

Carman had received his Bachelor of Science in botany from the State University of Iowa and was working at Great Lakes Research Center to look at pollution in the Great Lakes when he had an epiphany concerning the fragile state of the environment. “It was really shocking. We were analyzing samples from the lakes, and I began to see how bad the situation was,” Carman recalls. “I realized that if this contamination continued, everything in the lakes would soon be dead and that pollution could do that to the whole planet.”

Carman went on to receive his master’s and his doctorate in botany and taught at the college level from 1967 to 1978. He moved to Austin, Texas in 1970 and was interested in getting involved in environmental work. His first job working on civil enforcement cases for the Texas Air Control Board (TACB) offered a few more rude awakenings about the state of the environment. “Up until then, I was not aware of factories and plants that pollute,” Carman says. “Driving near the plants, I could smell chemicals that I knew were not good to breathe, and yet people were living in the neighborhoods near the plants.”

When he asked what the TACB could do about people living in these neighborhoods, he was told that they would do nothing unless someone complained. “It was a case of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Carman says.. “Hayes Elementary Magnet School was within 800 feet of the chemical plant. That was in the 1980’s and people said it had stunk for 20 years,” Carman remembers. Carman says he heard many nightmare stories as he worked on cases around Texas, stories that the news media never covered. “Communities had no idea how bad it was,” he says.

Carman was not able to keep quiet about the environmental atrocities and public health hazards he uncovered. On Oct. 8, 1989 he made front page news in the Austin American-Statesman Sunday paper: “Air Board Removes Investigator after Polluter Complains.” Carman was the whistleblower. He exposed the Texas Air Control Board’s cover-up of serious violations at a major industrial plant in West Texas. The case became one of the largest air pollution lawsuits ever prosecuted by the Texas attorney general’s office. Carman was exonerated. The executive director of TACB resigned January 1990, 90 days after the story of the cover-up was revealed, according to Carman. “The Houston Chronicle said it was over the agency cover-up exposed in West Texas,” Carman recalls.

“I quietly left the agency in April 1992 to work with the Sierra Club and the industrial community citizens due to my concerns about how bad things were all over the state,” Carman says. He has been working with Lone Star Sierra Club ever since.

The work continues. Recently Carman has been working with a large coalition of Texas organizations to stop the building of coal fired power plants. “Power plants are one of the weakest regulated areas,” Carman says.

He plans to continue working on environmental issues for a few more years and Carman says he likes working for the Sierra Club. “Sure, it can be a little frustrating,” he admits. “Today I was talking to a man who says that a gas pipeline is planned to be built about 100 feet from his house, and he doesn’t want a pipeline through his yard.” Carman says he had to tell the man there wasn’t a lot that could be done and it could be a lot worse. “I told him his choices were to move out or negotiate for an easement to have an alarm on the pipeline that would alert him and his family in case of a gas leak.”

Carman says he is planning a vacation with his wife, Elizabeth, out of the state to “do something she likes to do.” “She does get on my case for staying up too late and traveling so much,” Carman admits. “Sometimes we go on vacation to tour chemical plants. She puts up with me,” he says as he smiles. They have been married since 1993 and live in the Austin area.

Neil is the Clean Air Program Director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club

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