http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/21/MNGCE2FS6G1.DTL
Tuesday, October 21,
2003
San Francisco Chronicle
Ecuadorans
put Chevron on trial
Company accused in class-action lawsuit of despoiling
Amazon region with crude
Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle
Staff Writer
CAPTION
#1:
"Lago Agrio, Ecuador. Chronicle Graphic"
CAPTION
#2:
"A butterfly killed by spilled oil is displayed by a
citizen of Guanta, in Ecuador's Amazon region."
Associated Press photo by Dolores Ochoa
CAPTION
#3:
"Humberto Piaguaje, Texaco. His father will be testifying
during the trial that begins today in Lago Agrio."
Chronicle photo by Lea Suzuki
A class-action lawsuit against oil giant ChevronTexaco opened
today in a small, cinderblock courthouse in a frontier oil town
in the Ecuadorian rainforest, charging the company with despoiling
the environment with millions of gallons of spilled crude oil
during
the 1970s and '80s.
International activists
who have been aiding the plaintiffs
- 30,000 Amazonian peasants and Indians -- say the case could
be a milestone in ensuring U.S.-based companies conduct their
foreign operations responsibly.
"It's historic,"
said Shannon Wright, associate director of
Amazon Watch, a San Francisco nonprofit. "What happens in
this
one-room courthouse could be a turning point for indigenous
people trying to protect their land and for multinational
companies looking to avoid responsibility overseas."
ChevronTexaco's lawyers,
however, say there is no case and
will ask the judge today to dismiss the suit.
The company contends
that its subsidiary, Texaco Petroleum Corp.,
undertook a $40 million cleanup in 1998 and is no longer legally
responsible for the environmental conditions in Ecuador.
"We don't feel
the plaintiffs have ever provided any substantiated
evidence to support their claims," said Maripat Sexton, a
spokeswoman
for ChevronTexaco in Houston. "In 1998, the Ecuadoran government,
PetroEcuador and five municipalities released the company from
all
liabilities and obligations related to the oil operations.''
PetroEcuador is the national oil company.
But Humberto Piaguaje,
39, a member of the Secoya nation and
a village schoolteacher who lives beside the Aguarico River,
has experienced firsthand the toxic consequences of oil exploration.
For 30 years, he said,
residents of the jungle region have been
dying of cancer, hepatitis and skin infections. People lack clean
water for drinking and bathing. And widespread deforestation has
encroached on traditional fishing and hunting grounds.
He feels ChevronTexaco
does bear responsibility for the mess,
along with the national oil company, which continues drilling
in the Amazon. The trial, he said, is his country's chance
to prove that the rule of law will protect ordinary citizens.
"I'm a little
nervous, but I also have hope,'' Piaguaje said
in San Francisco on Monday. "This is the moment when Ecuador
needs to demonstrate that there is justice. But I know the
company is very powerful. If it can influence the judge,
we'll be worse off than we were.''
Piaguaje was visiting
the Bay Area to raise awareness about
the case, particularly in the San Ramon Valley, where
ChevronTexaco headquarters is located, and where residents
plan a protest today. He returned to Ecuador Monday night
to attend the trial in the Amazon town of Lago Agrio, where
his father is scheduled to testify.
He and the other plaintiffs
have waited more than a decade
for their day in court. They are seeking a thorough cleanup,
detailed monitoring of the long- term health effects of the
contamination and damages that could total more than $1 billion.
The trial is expected to last six days, and the judge must
return a verdict within three months.
The original suit alleges
that Texaco dumped 18 million
gallons of toxic waste into hundreds of unlined open pits,
estuaries and rivers between 1964 and 1992, exposing residents
to cancer-causing pollutants. Environmental activists say
crude oil-laden wastewater should have been reinjected deep
underground, as has long been standard practice in the industry.
But ChevronTexaco spokeswoman
Sexton said the use of waste pits
was legal and common.
"Especially at
the time, pits were an acceptable method of dealing
with produced water," she said. "It's still allowable
in many
countries, including in parts of the United States."
The plaintiffs had
originally hoped the case would be tried
in the United States, but a federal appeals court in New York
ruled last year that the matter should be decided in Ecuador.
But in a landmark decision, the court also warned that any
judgment against the oil company by the Ecuadoran court would
be enforced in the United States.
"A precedent has
already been set in a U.S. court saying
we will enforce a judgment made in another country against
a U.S. company," said Wright. "If the judgment is favorable
to the plaintiffs, then it takes it to a whole new level."
E-mail Tyche Hendricks
at thendricks@sfchronicle.com.
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