Human rights activist Bianca Jagger will urge ChevronTexaco to take responsibility for pollution and contamination in the Ecuadorean Amazon when she
speaks at the company’s annual shareholders meeting (tomorrow).
Jagger will stand with a few shareholders who want their company to investigate allegations that villagers are contracting serious illnesses, such as cancer, stemming from contamination.
At a news conference held Monday in San Francisco, Jagger and others detailed the pollution they witnessed during recent visits to Ecuador.
“I was shocked by what I saw in Ecuador,” Jagger said. The activist, who has campaigned for human rights in Bosnia, Africa and her native country, Nicaragua, said she has seen nothing to compare the devastation of the Ecuadorean Amazon.
“It is second only to Chernobyl,” she said. Jagger described open waste pits and rivers, streams and lagoons contaminated by oil.
Jagger was joined by Sister Judy Cannon of the Sisters of Mercy in Burlingame, who represents a group of Catholic shareholders. Toribio Aguinda from the National Cofan Indigenous Federation of Ecuador and Rosa Moreno, a nurse from the village of San Carlos, also bore witness to the pollution.
Cannon and other shareholders, including Shelley Alpern of Trillium Asset Management, want to see ChevronTexaco take action.
At today’s meeting, shareholders will vote on a resolution, introduced by Alpern, calling for a report to address the health and environmental concerns of
villagers near waste pits.
Cannon, Alpern and representatives of two other shareholders, including the heavyweight New York State Common Retirement System, which owns $400 million worth of shares, returned from a fact-finding trip to Ecuador a few weeks ago.
Attorney Stephen Donziger, who represents the indigenous people of the Amazon, said the shareholders’ role is significant.
“I believe the involvement of the shareholders is the single most powerful piece of leverage the indigenous groups have over the company,” Donziger said.
“The reason is the shareholders speak the one language leaders of ChevronTexaco understand most and that is the language of money.”
In 1964, Texaco Petroleum Co., a subsidiary of Texaco, became a minority partner in a government-owned oil consortium in Ecuador. Almost 30 years later,
the company left the drilling fields in the Amazon.
In 1995, the company undertook $40 million effort to repair damage to the soil and water, work that was approved by the Ecuadorean government in 1998.
Chevron and Texaco merged in 2001.
The company, which is named in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of four tribes of 30,000 Ecuadoreans, argues that it has fulfilled its obligations in
the region.
“A recent inspection of the fields by environmental experts found no evidence of crude oil contamination,” ChevronTexaco spokesman Stan Luckoski said.
“But they did see open oil pits and flaring at sites operated by the state oil company, which has owned and operated oil fields exclusively for the past 14
years.”
“We believe the plaintiffs are pointing the finger in the wrong direction,” he added. Luckowski said there is “no reliable scientific evidence” to support the claims made in the lawsuit.
But Donziger pointed to the work of an oil remediation expert hired by his clients. The expert assessed the liability for the necessary cleanup at $6.1 billion. Other studies have pointed to high rates of cancer, Jagger said.
Jagger and others believe the stockholders have not been fully informed about the contamination. They are particularly concerned about reports of high incidents of cancer and leukemia in the Ecuadorean villages.
The oil company neglected to use the technology available at the time to protect the environment, Jagger said.
“The reason why they did not do it is they believe life in the Third World is worth nothing,” she said. “That’s why this case is so important. We need to make them accountable.”
Jagger, who is perhaps best remembered for her eight-year marriage to Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger in the 1970s, has spent more than two decades
championing human rights.
She has testified before the Human Rights Caucus of the United States Congress and serves on the executive council of Amnesty International of the
United States.
Community groups advocating on behalf of the Amazon’s indigenous people will gather for a community event at 7 p.m. today at Danville Congregational Church, 989 San Ramon Valley Road in Danville. Jagger is expected to attend the event.
Supporters also will hold a rally in front of ChevronTexaco headquarters beginning at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. The shareholders meeting begins at 8 a.m.
