Pat Costner

In particular, Costner played a significant role in highlighting dioxin contamination in Mossville, Louisiana, a predominantly African American community.

Her findings revealed dioxin levels in the environment and food sources that significantly exceeded safe limits, challenging official reports.

In 2013, she founded Save the Ozarks (StO), originally a single-issue advocacy group opposing a proposed high-voltage transmission line by Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) that would extend from Bentonville to a substation near the Kings River in Carroll County.

[9] Costner had previously supported local activists in their campaign against herbicide spraying along powerline corridors on public and private lands by Carroll Electric Cooperative in the Ozarks.

[11] In 2004, Costner lent her expertise to Czech environmental activists opposing a proposed waste incinerator in Lysá nad Labem.

Pat Costner at IPEN side event in 2013, Geneva
Pat Costner speaking for adoption of revised Dioxin Toolkit at COP6 of the Stockholm Convention. Photo: Shahriar Hossain.