Ecuador's Chevron claim has more delays

[Judi Lynn]

Ecuador's Chevron claim has more delays
Saturday, March 13, 2010

Another ruling, another few years to tack onto a case that has already lasted 17 years.

And those at the bottom of the legal chain - indigenous peoples in the Ecuadoran Amazon - remain no better off than when the contest began.

We speak, of course, about the $27.3 billion claim against San Ramon's Chevron Corp., which New York attorney Stephen Donziger, representing the inhabitants, says is responsible for the environmental mess resulting from oil drilling begun in the 1960s by Texaco, before it was taken over by Chevron in 2001.

The latest round went to Chevron when a U.S. court ruled Thursday it could take the dispute to international arbitration, claiming the government of Ecuador and the state-owned Petroecuador oil company is responsible for cleaning up the mess, not Chevron.

More:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/13/BU481CEMBH.DTL

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Wilms]

3. Ooooohh. Insider are you?

Tell us more. I guess you can't. It's only for insiders and internet posting. Right?

You've got "inside reports" on such a case AND you post here to share soooo many things with us. I'm more and more impressed.

[protocol rv]

4. That's right

I do have a lot more information than you do, and I also happen to have some expertise on the matter.

However, if you bother to read and investigate, you'll find a critical set of documents were introduced in the court showing the Ecuadorian government had signed off in full agreement that Chevron had cleaned up the mess they had made.

The handover to the state oil company took place 20 years ago, Chevron cleaned up what they were told to clean up, and the Ecuadorians continued to operate the fields, and proceeded to make a huge mess, which is what the locals are now using as an excuse to sue Chevron. Because there are records on file showing the mess is indeed caused by the state oil company, the case is flimsy as can be. And this is why the judge ruled against the plaintiffs.

This is one of those cases where ambulance chasing lawyers in USA are atempting to cause enough hassles for Chevron so they will toss some money their way, but it's evidently a weak case. And this is why you see the continuous drum beat of propaganda from left wing circles repeating what is, after all, the same and unreliable source. Thus far I have seen nothing presented by the plaintiff's side to show their case holds water. You do need tort reform in the US, LOL

[Wilms]

5. Like I'll take your linkless word for it. n/t

-edited to add-

"I do have a lot more information than you do, and I also happen to have some expertise on the matter." most likely = financial interest.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The Worst Case of Oil Pollution on the Planet:Chevron-Texaco in the Ecuadorian Amazon Region

The Worst Case of Oil Pollution on the Planet
Chevron-Texaco in the Ecuadorian Amazon Region
September 28, 2007


Chevron is responsible for creating toxic contamination 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez Probably the largest oil-related environmental catastrophe in the world exists quietly in the Amazon rainforest, threatening to wipe out five indigenous groups largely out of sight of the world's media.

In an isolated part of Ecuador, Chevron dumped billions of gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest from 1964 to 1992 while operating hundreds of oil wells. Today, this waste threatens five indigenous groups with extinction and has created what experts believe could be the worst environmental disaster on the planet other than Chernobyl. Chevron intentionally discharged into Ecuador's rainforest more than 30 times the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster. Much to Chevron's dismay, 30,000 rainforest dwellers stood up to this corporate goliath and filed a historic class-action lawsuit in Ecuador against the company in 2003. The lawsuit (Aguinda v. ChevronTexaco) has the potential to set an important legal precedent that could benefit millions of vulnerable people worldwide. The case is the first in history where rainforest tribes have been able to gain jurisdiction in their own courts over a large American oil company. The rainforest dwellers assert that Chevron systematically dumped 18.5 billion gallons of highly carcinogenic toxic waste into unlined pits, swamps, streams, and rivers. The resulting disaster-dubbed the "Rainforest Chernobyl" by locals-is connected to numerous deaths from cancer and an untold number of spontaneous miscarriages and genetic malformations. Once a pristine rainforest, the area where Chevron operated is now filled with more than 1,000 toxic waste pits and hundreds of swamps and streams filled with oil muck. Some of the waste pits are the size of a football field, and many contain the carcasses of cows and horses that have fallen into the pits and asphyxiated.

Over the years, the toxic contents of the waste pits have leeched into the groundwater, streams and rivers, contaminating the larger ecosystem and sending toxins downstream into Peru. Since there are no other options for obtaining water, local people now depend on these contaminated sources for drinking water. Thousands of people are slowly poisoning themselves several times daily as they consume the water, bathe in local waterways, and breathe the vapors in the air from the pits. Childhood leukemia rates are four times higher in this area than in other parts of Ecuador; children as young as a few months of age have died of leukemia.

What Chevron did in Ecuador was the direct result of the company's decision to prioritize short-term profits over people's lives and the environment. To further increase profits in Ecuador, the company decided not to dispose of the toxic waste by re-injecting it hundreds of feet back into the well cavity to protect the environment. The "re-injection" technology needed to do this was in use for decades in the United States at the time Chevron began drilling in Ecuador. By foregoing use of this cleaner technology, Chevron saved approximately $4.5 billion over the life of its operations in Ecuador. Despite these short-term gains, the long-term environmental and human costs are now almost too large to measure. Today, the affected tribes and communities are demanding that Chevron foot the $6 billion clean-up bill-a modest portion of the estimated $30 billion in profits that the company extracted from its dirty Ecuadorian operations.

Although the rainforest dwellers affected by Chevron's toxic legacy can never fully be compensated for their suffering and loss, they hope to win their historic class-action lawsuit against the company so a comprehensive clean-up can take place. The trial has three phases: a proof period, where witnesses testify and evidence is presented; a judicial inspection period, where the judge and technical experts visit and assess the contaminated sites; and a period to determine clean-up costs. The trial is currently nearing an end, with only the cost assessment left to complete. Water and soil samples collected indicate extensive contamination at 100% of the sites inspected.

Chevron's trial strategy is to rely on technical defenses, including a release secured from Ecuador's government in 1995 after the company supposedly "remediated" a limited number of toxic waste pits. Chevron's "remediation" of the pits amounted to little more than smoothing dirt over the tops of the pits without cleaning them out, which failed to lower contamination levels. The trial is expected to end in late 2007 or early 2008.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Boycotts/OilPollutionEcuadorChevron.html