Chevron’s main defense in a $27 billion lawsuit for oil contamination is the 1995 remediation agreement with the government of Ecuador that released Texaco from government claims in exchange for cleaning up oil pits built by Texaco to store the toxic sludge left over from drilling.
What Chevron doesn’t tell you is that Texaco failed to live up to its side of the agreement. The pits Texaco “cleaned” tested as high or even higher for contamination than the pits Texaco did not clean. At many pits, Texaco only poured dirt into the pits, without cleaning them out and lining the pits first.
Here’s a photo of dirt laden with oil, dug only three inches deep from the pit at the well site, Atacapi 5. Contamination tests taken by the court-appointed expert at this site found a total petroleum hydrocarbon level of 21,976 parts per million — 21 times over the legal limit of 1,000 TPH.
The chart below lists other so-called “cleaned” pits that Texaco said it remediated, but clearly did not based on the illegal levels of TPH.
SITE | CHEVRON’S CLAIM | TPH | NUMBER OF TIMES OVER LEGAL LIMIT | |
1 | Sacha 18 | Complete Remediation | 35,380 | 35.3 |
2 | Sacha 65 | Complete Remediation | 32,444 | 32.4 |
3 | Shushufindi 27 | Complete Remediation | 26,413 | 26.4 |
4 | Atacapi 5 | Complete Remediation | 21,976 | 21.9 |
5 | Sacha 21 | Complete Remediation | 17,000 | 17 |
6 | Shushufindi 21 | Complete Remediation | 16,033 | 16 |
7 | Shushufindi 67 | Complete Remediation | 13,587 | 13.5 |
8 | Shushufindi 45A | Complete Remediation | 13,290 | 13.2 |
9 | Shushufindi 48 | Complete Remediation | 13,000 | 13 |
10 | Shushufindi 7 | Complete Remediation | 12,715 | 12.7 |
11 | Shushufindi 25 | Complete Remediation | 10,956 | 10.9 |
12 | Shushufindi 27 | Complete Remediation | 10,452 | 10.4 |
13 | Ron 1 | Complete Remediation | 9,632 | 9.6 |
14 | Lago Agrio 5 | Complete Remediation | 8,830 | 8.8 |
15 | Sacha 94 | Complete Remediation | 8,700 | 8.7 |
16 | Aguarico 8 | Complete Remediation | 8,183 | 8.1 |
17 | Sacha 57 | Complete Remediation | 8,100 | 8.1 |
18 | Sacha 65 | Complete Remediation | 7,519 | 7.5 |
19 | Sacha 53 | Complete Remediation | 7,430 | 7.4 |
20 | Shushufindi 13 | Complete Remediation | 7,415 | 7.4 |
21 | Sacha 51 | Complete Remediation | 7,200 | 7.2 |
22 | Shushufindi 45A | Complete Remediation | 5,721 | 5.7 |
23 | Sacha 94 | Complete Remediation | 5,600 | 5.6 |
24 | Shushufindi 25 | Complete Remediation | 5,574 | 5.5 |
25 | Guanta 4 | Complete Remediation | 5,510 | 5.5 |
26 | Shushufindi 7 | Complete Remediation | 5,334 | 5.3 |
27 | Shushufindi 48 | Complete Remediation | 5,000 | 5 |
28 | Shushufindi 18 | Complete Remediation | 4,881 | 4.8 |
29 | Lago Agrio 2 | Complete Remediation | 4,777 | 4.7 |
30 | Auca 19 | Complete Remediation | 4,014 | 4 |
31 | Yuca 28 | Complete Remediation | 3,876 | 3.8 |
32 | Shushufindi 46 | Complete Remediation | 3,697 | 3.6 |
33 | Sacha 56 | Complete Remediation | 3,600 | 3.6 |
34 | Sacha 6 | Complete Remediation | 3,300 | 3.3 |
35 | Shushufindi 21 | Complete Remediation | 3,133 | 3.1 |
36 | Sacha 51 | Complete Remediation | 3,100 | 3.1 |
37 | Shushufindi 48 | Complete Remediation | 3,000 | 3 |
38 | Sacha 10 | Complete Remediation | 2,802 | 2.8 |
39 | Shushufindi 48 | Complete Remediation | 2,700 | 2.7 |
40 | Sacha 57 | Complete Remediation | 2,400 | 2.4 |
41 | Shushufindi 24 | Complete Remediation | 2,180 | 2.1 |
42 | Parahuacu 3 | Complete Remediation | 2,065.12 | 2.065 |
43 | Shushufindi 24 | Complete Remediation | 2,000 | 2 |
44 | Shushufindi 8 | Complete Remediation | 1,600 | 1.6 |
45 | Lago Agrio 6 | Complete Remediation | 1,300 | 1.3 |