September 20, 2005
Sacha-14 Judicial Inspection Expert Report Shows No Risks to Health or the Environment
QUITO, Ecuador, September 20, 2005 - The Sacha-14 well site is an active well being operated by Petroecuador. Environmental conditions at the site are solely the responsibility of Petroecuador. Nevertheless, laboratory results from the expert report for the Sacha-14 judicial site inspection reveal that petroleum residue found at the site does not present a risk to human health or the environment. This expert report, the 14th submitted by Chevron in the case so far, was filed with the Superior Court of Nueva Loja on July 4.
The inspection of Sacha-14 was requested by the plaintiffs, even though it was not a site that was the responsibility of Texpet to remediate under the 1995 agreement between Texpet, the Government of Ecuador and Petroecuador. Sites that were not identified as Texpet's responsibility under this agreement were determined to be Petroecuador's responsibility and a legal release of future responsibility was granted to Texpet with regard to Sacha 14.
Sara McMillen, Chevron's senior scientific advisor for the case, said: "Sacha-14 has been operated by Petroecuador for the last 14 years and the state oil company has not fulfilled its environmental remediation responsibility at the site. Existing hydrocarbons found during the inspection were within four pit areas in use by Petroecuador. Residue from a recent Petroecuador oil spill that was never properly cleaned up was also discovered during the inspection. The inspection revealed that the Sacha-14 site is in need of maintenance, the soils around the wellhead are stained with oil, and there is garbage in various places. However, the technical inspections do not suggest a risk to human health due to poor maintenance or from any oil-related activities."
While the data revealed no threat to health from hydrocarbons in soil or water, microbial contamination due to human and/or animal waste was discovered in every water sample analyzed. This finding aligns with the scientific evidence from every inspection conducted to date which found bacterial contamination in water, rather than petroleum residue dating back to the time of Texpet's operations more than a decade ago.
Conclusive findings from the Sacha-14 inspection were contained within the14th expert report filed with the Court. Superior Court President Efraín Novillo is scheduled to conduct a total of 122 inspections 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 Rock Island, Massachusetts. Reports containing testing data and expert conclusions were filed with the Court on May 30.
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
SACHA-14 TEST RESULTS SUMMARY
The well site SA-14 is an active well site being operated by Petroecuador. Conditions at the site are solely Petroecuador's responsibility. Remnants of a recent oil spill, a wellhead stained with oil and garbage in various places were discovered at the site.
Scope
The Sacha-14 site inspection included testing at four pits, none of which were included within Texpet's scope of work under the 1995 Remedial Action Plan (RAP) and therefore are Petroecuador's responsibility. In addition, areas outside of the pits were examined, including the site of a recent pipeline spill. A total of 8 water and 21 soil samples were taken, analyzed and reported from the site during the judicial inspection. One sample of dry, solid asphalt material was also included.
Inspection Date: November 17, 2004
Test Result Highlights:
No Risk from Petroleum Materials to Public Health or Environment
- Drinking water used by families in the area was analyzed and found to be free of petroleum hydrocarbons. However, unsafe levels of fecal and total coliform bacteria were present in all water samples collected from the home wells.
- Soil samples from the four pit sites at Sacha-14 yielded chemical concentration levels below safe levels, indicating that soils in these areas do not present a risk to human health.
- A solid, dry sample of asphalt material found in a small area south of Pit 4 contained two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; benzo(a)pyrene and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene) at levels that exceeded the evaluation criteria. However, the asphalt material does not present a risk to human health because it is inert, immobile, and not bioavailable.
Analysis of Results
- Crude oil residue in the pit area is highly degraded, immobile and does not contain the most toxic components of petroleum polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene or xylenes (BTEX) at unsafe levels.
- Analysis of soil and water samples confirms that there was no migration of petroleum from the pits.
- In Sacha petroleum, metals are found in even lower concentrations than typical soils. Therefore, they would not cause a significant increase to the metals concentrations of soils.
- No hydrocarbons were found above safe drinking water levels established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or the World Health Organization (WHO), even in temporary water wells which were installed a few meters from the pits.
Remediation Program:
- Sacha-14 was not included in the 1995 Texpet remediation program.
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