“A stunning achievement.”—MOLLY IVINS

In 1989, an EPA study revealed that Calhoun County, on Texas’s Gulf Coast, was the most polluted place in the United States. Even before the report came out, Diane Wilson knew that the fish were hurting, and so were the people who caught them for a living. Most people were willing to overlook the problem. Wilson was not. Facing crooked politicians, corporate lawyers, and vengeful neighbors, she set out to save both her town and her way of life.