Lago Agrio — As part of the new study, researchers drilled to depths of 3 meters en each of the 207 waste pits that supposedly cleaned up by Texaco. Results indicate that all of them had significant concentrations of petroleum.
The study was conducted by PetroEcuador, the State-owned oil company and the Amazon Defense Fronte (Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia) under the supervision of PetroEcuador. The study will be presented to the court today in Lago Agrio as part of the initial proof in the lawsuit against the company. The plaintiffs will ask the judge to personally visit the sites as part of the legal inspections in the coming months, to confirm once more that the cleanup conducted by Texaco was incomplete.
Two teams of three people visited each of the waste pits of Texaco during the months of July, August, and September. What they discovered confirms what the residents of the area have said for years: that what Texaco did was only to cover up the 207 pits with dirt without cleaning the oil within.
Some of the people who live there have maintained for years that the supposed cleanup did more damage that good in the sense that the people nearby were fooled into believing their water had been decontaminated.
The remediation efforts of Texaco, that according to the company cost $40 million, is one of the company’s arguments for saying Texaco does not have responsibility in Ecuador. Texaco utilized the remediation to sign an agreement with the Ecuadorian Government that releases the company from future liability on the part of the government.
One of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, Steven Donziger, assures that the government of Ecuador can nullify the convention for remediation if it is based on false claims. If the agreement is annulled, the government itself can sue Texaco for environmental damages, as can private citizens, said Donziger.
The lawyers that represent the plaintiffs said that they are studying the results of this study and will release additional information en the following days.
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