Lawyers representing plaintiffs in an environmental lawsuit against ChevronTexaco in Ecuador said the company is resorting to “junk science” to hide the “environmental disaster” it caused in the Amazon.
According to the Amazon Defense Coalition, Chevron failed to test the site where it was alleged to have dumped refining wastes for heavy metals, ignored Ecuadorian environmental laws, tested sites known to be contaminant-free, and failed to disclose the results of its own laboratory analysis that indicated “high levels of cancer-causing” petrochemicals at the sites.
“Like the scientists who were paid by tobacco companies to prove smoking was harmless, Chevron’s technicians used junk science to manufacture conclusions,” said Steven Donziger, an attorney for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs.
The lawsuit alleges a subsidiary of Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – dumped 18.5 billion gallons of oil-laden water into local rivers. The company asserts than Texaco took measures to keep water clean in accordance with accepted oil practices at the time and paid for a $40 million remediation project approved by Ecuador’s government that freed it of further responsibility.
Earlier this year, Ecuador rejected Chevron’s demand for arbitration of the issue in the US, saying that as a sovereign nation, it was not subject to US courts (OD Jul.12,p9).
