Chevron

Over the span of around 30 years starting (accounts vary) between 1965 and 1972, Texaco extracted more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil from the Ecuadorian Amazon and dumped 18.5 billion gallons of toxic waste and 17 million gallons of oil--more than the Exxon Valdez oil spill-- into the rainforest, contaminating streams, soil and estuaries, according to a complaint filed by five indigenous groups and 80 communities in the Ecuadorian Superior Court lawsuit Aguinda v. ChevronTexaco. This landmark suit represents over 30,000 people, many of them indigenous, who are now suffering a public health crisis, including a wave of cancers, birth defects and stillbirths. In April 2008, a court-appointed expert set damages against Texaco at between $7 billion and $16 billion. Under Ecuador’s legal system; it is now up to the judge to decide whether Chevron are liable, a decision expected in late 2008.

Texaco’s alleged pollution was avoidable. Instead of opting to comply with the standard industry practice of re-injecting toxic by-products into well cavities hundreds of feet into the ground (a practice that had been in effect for more than a half-century in the US when Chevron began drilling in Ecuador), Texaco executives decided to save approximately $3 per barrel by dumping the wastewater, laced with carcinogens and heavy metals including lead, directly into the natural environment.

Nearly 700 open-air toxic waste pits, some the size of football fields, filled with oil contamination have been found, many of which are also littered with the carcasses of animals that have fallen into them. As the toxic contents of the waste pits has seeped into the groundwater systems on which local communities depend, childhood leukemia rates have risen to four times higher than in other parts of Ecuador. Other health problems to rise include mouth and uterine cancer, spontaneous miscarriages, and birth defects childhood leukemia rates are four times higher and young children routinely die of lukemia.

In Burma, Chevron (which bought out Unocal) owns a 28 percent stake of the pipeline called the "Yadana project" which is the largest source of income for the Burmese government, at $969 million a year in 2008. Total is also part owner of the project that was grandfathered in, before sanctions prevented similar project from being contracted to foreign companies.

Chevron's Richmond Refinery in Richmond (Contra Costa County) California is one of the largest in the U.S., covering 3,000 acres and producing 2 million lbs of waste per year. In 2001 the refinery released almost 25,000 pounds of cancer-causing chemicals into the surrounding low-income, mostly African-American community and from 1989 to 1995 there were more than 300 reported accidents at the refinery. (For more information see the West County Toxics Coalition. The company has paid a number of negotiated fines, without investing in substantial equipment upgrades or safety improvements. In 2004, it paid about $330,000 to settle two enforcement lawsuits brought by the Contra Costa district attorney for over 70 reported violations between 2000 and 2002. In 2001, it was fined $242,500 for failing to repair leaking pipe connectors in a timely manner.