http://www.ran.org/chevrons-toxic-legacy-ecuador

Rockefeller's "Chevron"  Toxic Legacy in Ecuador

Chevron is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters in history — the deliberate dumping of a massive amount of oil pollution in the Ecuadorean Amazon — for which it was found guilty in February 2011 and ordered to pay $18 billion to cle...

The judgment was upheld by an appeals court in January 2012. Rather than take responsibility for the impacts of its business operations, however, Chevron is waging unprecedented public relations and lobbying campaigns to avoid having to clean up Ecuador — as well as several other environmental and public health catastrophes it has created around the world.

A toxic waste pit left by Texaco, now Chevron, near Dureno, Ecuador in 1993. Photo by Lou Dematteis.

Between 1964 and 1990, Texaco (which Chevron acquired in 2001) drilled for oil in a remote northern region of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest called the Oriente.

Using obsolete technology and substandard environmental controls, the company deliberately dumped 18.5 BILLION GALLONS of HIGHLY TOXIC WASTE SLUDGE into the streams and rivers on which local people depend for drinking, bathing, and fishing.

The company dug over 900 open-air, unlined waste pits that to seep toxins into the ground to this day. The sludge contained some of the most dangerous chemicals known to man — including benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — in lethal concentrations. Rupturing oil pipelines and gas flaring was also a regular occurrence.

What’s worse, THE "DUMPINGS WERE DONE INTENTIONALLY TO CUT CORNERS AND SAVE AN ESTIMATED $3.00 PER BARREL.

Cofan indigenous leader Emergildo Criollo. Photos by Lou Dematteis.

In the Oriente Ecuador Rainforest, the land itself has become toxic and the entire water system contaminated. Almost any kind of food from this region — whether it’s farmed, domesticated, caught in the wild or in water — is unsafe to eat.

While Chevron has refused to accept responsibility and clean up the pollution, more than 1,400 people have died of attributed cancers. Children under 14 have been most vulnerable, suffering high rates of birth defects and leukemia. Parents cannot adequately feed their families. Local economies and communities have collapsed. And for those who remain, their way of life, their culture and traditions, have been radically altered.

For its part, Chevron has actually denied that 18.5 billion gallons of toxic waste can harm people.

Courageously, the rainforest people of the Ecuadorean Amazon are standing up to Chevron. After a long and often bitter 18-year struggle, the Indigenous and rural Ecuadoreans suing Chevron to force the company to clean up its oil contamination in the Amazon have prevailed.

In February 14, 2011, a court in Lago Agrio, Ecuador issued a historic ruling finding Chevr... and ordering the company to pay $18.2 billion to clean up its mess in Ecuador. The judgment is currently being appealed.

If successful, this case will establish a monumental precedent for corporate accountability and justice across the globe. If successful, Chevron will be forced to finally care. Learn more about the contamination in Ecuador and the historic trial at ChevronToxico.com