January 17, 2005
Scientific Tests Confirm First Four Sites Inspected by Judge Are Safe
No Petroleum-Related Public Health Risks At Sites Remediated by Texpet or in Local Drinking Water
Reports Indicate That No Technical Basis Exists for Plaintiffs' Claims
Laboratory Findings Verify Effectiveness of Texpet's Environmental Remediation; Company Met or Exceeded All Applicable International Evaluation Criteria
QUITO, Ecuador, January 17, 2005 - Final laboratory results from four of the first judicial inspections conducted by the Superior Court of Nueva Loja confirm that there are no petroleum-related public health risks at sites remediated by Texaco Petroleum Company (Texpet), and that there is no technical basis to support plaintiffs' attorneys' claims, ChevronTexaco announced today. The laboratory results also confirm the remediation program carried out by Texpet was effective, and conducted in accordance with its agreement with the government of Ecuador and Petroecuador and international environmental evaluation criteria in place at the time for pit remediation.
Test results and conclusive findings from the Sacha-06 (SA-06), Sacha-21 (SA-21) and Sacha-10 (SA-10) wellsites and Shushufindi Southwest (SSF-SW) production station were gathered during the first of 122 inspections conducted by the Court in connection with an environmental lawsuit filed against the company. Samples were tested in the United States at Severn Trent Laboratories in Houston, Texas, and at NewFields, in Rockland, Massachusetts. Reports containing testing data and expert conclusions were filed with the Court last week, and are available at www.texaco.com/sitelets/inspections/es/ (currently in Spanish only).
Test results of soil and water samples taken from each of the four sites under the supervision of Superior Court President Efraín Novillo show conclusively that:
- The remediated sites pose no public health or environmental risks and Texpet conducted an effective remediation that met the closure requirements of the Remediation Plan approved by the Government of Ecuador and Petroecuador and applicable international remediation standards of the time;
- Laboratory tests of all drinking water sources showed that they meet safe drinking water standards set for those compounds by USEPA and the World Health Organization;
- Test results for drinking water showed high levels of bacterial contamination. These bacteria, which are completely unrelated to petroleum, often result from human or animal waste associated with poor sanitation;
- Expert reports submitted to the Court corroborate the fact that the evidence shows "no scientific basis" to support plaintiffs' attorneys' claims regarding property loss and health impact.
Soil samples taken of specific areas near the remediated sites, but outside of Texpet's area of responsibility show:
- There are some areas that have not been fully remediated by Petroecuador to meet international evaluation criteria.
- Even though some of these areas exceed the international criteria for total amount of oil (total petroleum hydrocarbons), the expert reports concluded that this does not pose a health risk to people or the environment because (1) no specific substances known to cause disease (for example, benzene) were found present at levels that exceed health based standards; and (2) people and livestock are not exposed in such a way as to result in a health impact.
- These sites are the responsibility of Petroecuador, who has operated the fields exclusively for the past 14 years.
"The facts speak for themselves: Sites remediated by Texpet present no health or environmental risks, the remediation program carried out by Texpet was completely effective, and the claims made by the plaintiffs have been proven false," said Ricardo Reis Veiga, vice president general counsel, Latin America Products for ChevronTexaco. Veiga continued, "The government of Ecuador and Petroecuador acknowledged the quality of Texpet's cleanup in 1998 when they released the company from all future claims, and now we have yet more scientific data to prove it. We look forward to completing all 122 inspections so we can put plaintiffs' baseless accusations against ChevronTexaco to rest and keep scrutiny on the state of the Oriente focused where it belongs - on Petroecuador."
Results Gathered Using Most Reliable, Effective and Scientifically Valid Procedures
Testing results from the SA-06, SA-21, SA-10 and SSF-SW sites were gathered in accordance with a Sampling Plan and an Analysis Plan created consistent with United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) guidelines and globally accepted evaluation criteria, and submitted to the Court along with a petition signed by both parties on August 17, 2004.
"Test results for sites remediated by Texpet show conclusively that Texpet conducted an effective remediation," Veiga continued. "We are confident that these conclusions are accurate because the experts ChevronTexaco nominated and the Court accepted used only the most reliable, effective and scientifically valid analytical procedures. We would hold up our testing methods and results to any further scientific scrutiny, and we challenge the plaintiffs to do the same."
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