Chevron/Texaco Oil and Ecuador During the 1960s,Chevron signed a contract with Ecuador that would allow the company to extract oil from Ecuadorian territory. In the contract was a written agreement that Chevron would follow all rules and regulations that accompany oil extraction. In doing so, the impacts on the environment and the indigenous communities would be very minimum. In the United States, all oil extraction processes require companies to line the waste pits, inject produced water back into the ground, and properly dispose of any gaseous waste. Although Chevron understands these protocols and strictly follows them in the United State's, they did not do so in Ecuador. In 1972, Chevron began drilling for oil and drilled over a hundred waste wells and pits. These wells and pits were not lined, the produced water was redirected into rivers and other water bodies, and the gaseous waste was burned. For several years the pits remained unattended, unmanaged and abandoned. This led to toxins to seep into the soils causing multiple environmental issues and human health issues.
Indigenous People vs Chevron/Texaco Over 17 years ago, the first court order was filed against Chevron. About 30,000 Amazon and Ecuadorian residents sued Chevron for polluting their freshwater with oil. In 1993, an Ecuadorian group of people known as the Affected Ones also sued Chevron. The people ordered the oil company to pay a $8.6 billion fine. After the court order, the plaintiffs announced they would even reduce the fine in half if Chevron were to apologize within a day. Chevron refused. They further announced they would not pay the fine due to there not being a significant amount of environmental damages. A former U.S. Superfund employee even stated that Chevron/Texaco would have been fully help liable for the pollution and damages they created if this were to happen in the United States. The company even tried to play the “victim”, stating the United States would not give them a fair trial. With that said, Chevron pushed to move the trial in Ecuador.
In 2011, Ecuador found Chevron liable for all damages and sued for a payment of 18 billion dollars for clean up and compensation. Unfortunately, Chevron continued to refuse to pay up. Former Chevron Vice President, Charles James stated, “Chevron will fight until hell freezes over and then skate it out on the ice.” The company further took all of their assets out of Ecuador. Instead of paying the fine, Chevron has been paying millions of dollars to lobbyists to pressure the United State’s government to cut all trades with Ecuador. They even paid for a 5 million dollar green washing campaign that showed their “care” for the communities. Chevron continues to claim they have no responsibility for the pollution, environmental impacts and human health impacts of the indigenous people and animals. They are clearly far more interested in protecting their image rather than the environment. Unfortunately, the fight between the Ecuadorian indigenous people and Chevron/Texaco still continues today. One can only hope that Chevron will one day take full responsibility for their actions and do the right thing.
Reference: Sebastián, M.S., A.K.Hurtig. 2004. Oil exploitation in the Amazon basin of Ecuador: a public health emergency. Public Health. 15(3).