THE AMAZON DEFENSE Coalition (ADC) has claimed that "large amounts of oil clearly visible to the naked eye" were found in supposedly "cleaned" Ecuadorian waste pits during a court-mandated inspection.
Texaco reportedly admitted to dumping more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into Ecuador's Amazon waterways when it was the exclusive operator of an oil consortium from 1964 to 1990. Five indigenous groups allege that their traditional lifestyles have been "decimated" by the contamination, which included carcinogens such as benzene. Chevron bought Texaco in 2001 and is expected to bear any liability in the case.
 According to attorney Julio Prieto, Chevron was granted permission to take soil samples at eight oil production sites, but instead requested a "postponement." The court apparently denied the motion and ordered the tests to proceed at well sites Auca 17 and 19. Marcelo Munoz, a court-appointed technical expert, then lifted samples with "oil sludge" from waste pits that had ostensibly undergone an approved remediation process.
Prieto noted that the final series of tests of Chevron oil production sites, scheduled to be completed by the end of March, would clear the way for a court decision on a $27 billion damages claim against the company.
"The inspections were a double defeat for Chevron. Chevron's attempt to delay backfired and we now have even more evidence of how Texaco polluted the rainforest," said Prieto.
However, Prieto's account of events was disputed by Chevron spokesperson James Craig.
"I am here in Ecuador at the judicial inspections and I watched what happened. I can assure you that not only is it false, but it is a gross distortion of what transpired. We never asked for a postponement. We told the judge the schedule for the eight remaining inspections was absurdly tight and designed to meet the plaintiffs' strategy. We requested a meeting with the judge to discuss the schedule, but said that regardless of whether there was a meeting, we would attend the inspections," Craig told The News.
According to Craig, "legal interventions" were cut short to meet the schedule, which included two technical inspections with sampling and visual analysis.
"The sampling could not be completed and the lawyers and the judge were transcribing the meeting minutes until 2 AM. This is not the right way to responsibly conduct judicial inspections. The 'sludge' they refer to at the remediated sites is actually stabilised, remediated soil. It's extremely degraded crude bound to the soil, that's immobile and doesn't represent a threat to anyone or anything. That was the intent of the remediation. The remediated material is actually covered by more than half a meter of clean soil," added Craig.
As The News previously reported, the ADC has recently stepped up its legal campaign against Chevron, accusing the corporation of manipulating laboratory results and deceiving shareholders.
"Chevron believes that plaintiffs and their sympathisers are seeking to obtain, through misinformation and pressure tactics, what they cannot hope to obtain through legitimate court processes. All their non-court related actions, including press releases, staged demonstrations and proposals at the company's annual meetings and pleas for government investigation and possible action against the company, serve this purpose and should be viewed in that light," noted Craig.
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