World’s Largest Oil-Related Environmental Catastrophe: Chevron Ecuador

Oil company giant Chevron is facing a monumental liability judgement for their role in what is being called ‘ the largest oil-related environmental catastrophe in the world’ – widespread water contamination and health issues in Ecuador stemming from Texaco’s (now Chevron) 40 year oil extraction history in the country.

“We lived in a house about 20 yards away from an oil well. Another Texaco oil well was upstream from where we got our drinking water, and the water was usually oily with a yellowish foam. I had 11 children. I lost Pedro when he was 19…. He had three cancerous tumors: in his lungs, liver, and his leg.” –Woman from Sacha

A lawsuit was first filed against Texaco in 1993 (Aguinda v. Texaco), and the company spent $40 million in the ’90s to clean up contaminated sites, and both the Ecuadoran government and Texaco declared the sites remediated in 1998. But a civil suit is being brought against the company on behalf of thousands of indigenous residents by an international team of lawyers, claiming that the area’s high rates of cancer and other health issues are a result of pollution from the oil company’s operations there. The suit also claims that the cleanup was both inadequate and fraudulent.

“The [Texaco] waste pits were upriver, and we drank water downriver. After bathing, our skin was covered with crude. I went to the oil companies, and they said this wouldn’t affect me, that the reason I had cancer was because I didn’t have good personal hygiene.” – Woman from San Carlos, a community which studies found to have a cancer rate 2.3 times that of Quito

The existence of the contaminated sites is not disputed, but as to the responsible party, Chevron blames former partner Petroecuador, and the blame for health issues in contaminated areas is being questioned by the company. (Chevron Denies Health Impacts)

“This is an epic case. The sheer size of the money involved also explains why a company like Chevron will continue to fight this as long as possible.” – Sean Hecht, the director of the University of California at Los Angeles’ Environmental Law Center

The original damage estimate of $6 billion has been reassessed to $27 billion and the number of cancer deaths from oil is estimated to be greater than 1,400.

According to ChevronToxico, a campaign for for justice in Ecuador, “The oil infrastructure developed and operated by Texaco had utterly inadequate environmental controls, and consequently Texaco dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater directly into the region’s rivers. The contamination of water essential for the daily activities of thousands of people has resulted in an epidemic of cancer, miscarriages, birth defects, and other ailments.”

Luis Yanza, winner of the 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize, and Emergildo Criollo, a leader of the Cofán indigenous people, are expected to attend Chevron’s shareholder meeting this year (Wednesday, May 27 at 08:30 a.m. at Chevron Headquarters – 6001 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon, California).

Several public pension funds from California, New York, New York City and Philadelphia, are supporting a resolution asking Chevron’s management to assess whether the company is complying with environmental protection laws in the countries it operates. Andrew Cuomo, New York State Attorney General, has opened a probe of Chevron to determine if it is misleading shareholders.

For more information on the Chevron/Ecuador situation, see ChevronToxico.

Image: gambier20 at Flickr

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