The “Amazon Chernobyl” Disaster in Ecuador

Olympia [Music] [Music] Olympia is sedimento petroleum deep within the lungs of the world the Amazon rainforest a disaster of unprecedented magnitude is taking place those responsible are determined keep it a secret little has changed for residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon over the past centuries the indigenous tribes live the same way their forefathers did in harmony with nature the rainforest provides everything one could need water food and shelter however in the early 1960s development came to their doorstep besides being abundant with Wildlife the Amazon was also rich in oil this caught the attention of one of the largest oil producing companies in the world Texaco in the following three decades the once pristine rainforest was transformed into what has been described as one of the world's most contaminated industrial sites the Amazon's Chernobyl oil waste has polluted everything from land to water to air to this day tribes living in the area are condemned to eat drink and breed the poison Texico had left behind for 18 years affected communities fought the oil Giant in a fierce legal battle that ended differently than you'd expect the story began in 1964 when the first oil exploration operations started in Northeast Ecuador by that time the United States oil consumption largely overpassed domestic production and the Americans had to resort to looking abroad the U. S based Oil Company Texaco organized the exploration which resulted in the Striking oil in 1967. the full-scale production began five years later in return for giving the concession Ecuador's government received a 25 stake in the Consortium over the years the shares increased the operations were run exclusively by Texaco staff founded in 1902 Texaco was one of the so-called Seven Sisters companies that dominated the global petroleum industry in post-world War II era they had tremendous experience in the business and in oil production technology moreover Texaco was one of the Pioneers in creating Advanced Environmental Protection Technologies as required by the high pollution standards in the United States of America drilling for oil was impossible without following the procedure to protect the environment adequately when creating an oil well in the United States Engineers would dig a temporary pit in the ground to store oil waste pits would be lined with a special impermeable industrial tarp to ensure no waste leaks into the ground there was also a separation station where the crude oil was refined from its toxic residue also known as produced water this was pumped back into the underground Pockets from which the oil was initially extracted when the drilling was completed the well-in separation station were removed temporary pits were emptied and the oil sludge was disposed of into special containers then the pit would be refilled with dirt and the location would return to its original state this was not the case in Ecuador instead the Texaco management estimated that the re-injection of produced water and removal of oil waste from temporary pits were unnecessary expenses so rather than pumping the produced water back into the ground they decided to drain it straight into nearby rivers and streams oil sludge was poured into temporary piths without protective tarp liners the that allowed the toxic waste to seep into the ground in underground water systems that local inhabitants used for drinking over many years of drilling operations the temporary pits were transformed into permanent ones they had overflow pipes installed to transport the sludge into rivers and streams additionally Texaco Engineers burned off the toxic natural gas during the oil extraction thus releasing enormous amounts of Highly poisonous dioxins into the air during the 28 years when Texaco was mining oil in the area they dumped more than 18.

5 billion gallons of toxic produced water into the rainforest the waste was spilled on an area of 1 500 square miles roughly the size of the State of Rhode Island in fact no plans were ever developed to clear the pits the company kept all its records of environmental incidents in Ecuador such as oil leaks and waste spills Under Wraps the consequences of the contaminated soil groundwater and surface waterways deeply affected the lives of tens of thousands of residents con cancer ous laboratory results showed that soil and water samples near texaco's oil wells contained High quantities of total petroleum hydrocarbons a highly cancerous mixture of chemical compounds originating from crude oil the amounts were up to one thousand times larger than Allowed by Ecuadorian law and even 10 000 times larger than the limits prescribed by the U. S law livestock were dying due to the drinking from contaminated rivers and streams fishing was made impossible because toxins in waterways killed all the fish in the region which flourished with biodiversity pollution decimated the wildlife the most affected were the people who lived in the provinces of sukumbios Oriana Napo and pastazza exposure to high amounts of tph caused them to suffer from damaged internal organs respiratory problems blood poisoning stomach and skin irritation and birth defects in addition several scientific Studies have reported increased rates of cancer children's leukemia and miscarriages in these provinces much higher than in other parts of Ecuador for the sake of profit Texaco generated one of the worst environmental disasters in recent history their savings were estimated at slightly over three dollars per barrel in 1992 texaco's concession on oil drilling operations in Ecuador ended leaving the government-owned Petro Ecuador as the business's sole owner unfortunately the waste they left behind continued killing the people to end their misery the following year thirty thousand locals organize themselves into the Amazon defense front or FDA the group worked with american-based attorney Stephen donzinger to file a class-action lawsuit against Texaco in the United States the FDA demanded the company repair the damage it caused to the environment and financially compensate the affected communities however they also wanted to make sure the world heard about the tragedy thus in 1993 donzinger and the fda's legal team filed a class-action lawsuit against Texaco in New York federal court to people from the Ecuadorian Amazon getting Justice was a matter of life or death but the same was true for Texaco if the FDA had won the trial it would have been a precedent for other cases worldwide where the oil company had been accused of destroying the environment a battle between David and Goliath began instead often outside the bounds of the legal system will the FDA activists gathered piles of evidence showing the extent of the crime committed in the Amazon rainforest Texaco management developed a different strategy they organized a lobbying campaign to to move the trial from the United States to Ecuador since winning abroad was expected to be much easier than facing an American Jury texaco's lawyers and experts filed 14 sworn affidavits praising the justices and fairness of the Ecuadorian courts the case they claimed belonged to Ecuador in October 2000 Texaco was acquired by another oil giant Chevron the new management admitted Texaco dumped produced water into Amazon waterways but paradoxically continued defending that cleaning the area was not their responsibility chevron's attorneys claimed the company had done its part in repairing the damage and that the rest of the duty was on the Ecuadorian government however the company's 40 million dollar cleaning campaign was nothing more than a cosmetic treatment in reality they only took responsibility for a small number of pits and these were just covered with dirt without removing the toxic oil sludge while chevron's workers were hiding the traces of their misdeed its lawyers and lobbyists continued campaigning to move the trial to Ecuador finally after years of lobbying the money invested paid off in 2002 the federal court in New York approved the transfer of the trial to Ecuador Chevron promised to oblige all of the decisions of its courts but the oil company was in for a surprise the Ecuadorian Court was indeed fair-minded and impartial leading the process meticulously and taking into account the interests of both parties the trial records accounted to 220 000 Pages The crucial evidence were 54 Court supervised inspections of texaco's former oil wells it was during these inspections that a shocking amount of tph was found in the water and soil prior to this chevron's Engineers secretly surveyed the oil wells to find areas in the ground with as little tph as possible nice job Dave thank you one simple task who picked the spot Renee however the pollution was so widespread that they could not find any clean samples to present as evidence of chevron's cleanup 18 years since the original lawsuit was filed and nine years after the trial was moved to Ecuador the court finally reached a verdict Chevron was found guilty of polluting 2 million Acres of the Amazonian rainforest the court ordered them to pay 18 billion dollars for the remediation of the environment the restoration of ecology and to compensate the five affected indigenous communities half of the sum was the fine for Chevron refusing to publicly apologize however after an appeals court ruled there was no legal basis to sanction Chevron for not apologizing the fine was reduced to 9. 5 billion dollars the verdict was the end of a long-lasting struggle to hold the Reckless Oil Company accountable Justice was achieved it was not how Chevron saw things though much to the Public's dismay Chevron refused to pay any fine altogether instead they responded to the verdict with a fierce campaign against enforcing it intending to dismiss the validity of the Ecuadorian court judgment they filed a countersuit in the United States federal court and the hague's permanent Court of arbitration the counter suit based on the testimony of an Ecuadorian ex-judge Alberto Guerra who claimed local tribes offered him money to ghost ride the Ecuadorian court judgment in 2014 the U.