22 Mar 2006
Superior Court Judge Again Denied Access to Laboratory Used by Plaintiffs in Lawsuit Against Chevron
Plaintiffs and Laboratory Operator in Defiance of Court Order
Chevron Asks, "What are they trying to hide?"
QUITO, ECUADOR, March 22, 2006 - For the second time since February Judge German Gonzalez, Civil Judge of Pichincha has been denied access to inspect the laboratory used by the plaintiffs' technicians in the ongoing environmental lawsuit against Chevron.
On March 21 Judge Gonzalez visited the Havoc Laboratory in Quito to conduct an official inspection to determine if the laboratory properly accredited and is capable of accurately performing the work it has been doing for the plaintiffs' technical experts. Despite the fact that both the lab operator and the plaintiffs' lawyers had been notified of the inspection, the lab was closed and the Judge was denied access.
This is the second time Havoc Labs have been intentionally closed, depriving the Judge from inspecting the lab, even after Havoc has been ordered by the Judge to make the lab available for inspection.
When the Judicial Site Inspections began in 2004, the plaintiffs hired the services of the Catholic University Laboratory in Quito. In January 2005 they abruptly switched to Havoc Laboratories in Quito for water and soil analysis, even though this laboratory is not certified to conduct either hydrocarbons or metal analysis.
Following this most recent instance of the plaintiffs' disregarding the order of the Judge, Rodrigo Perez, legal representative for Texaco Petroleum Company, said, "The laboratory operator is insulting the Judge, the judicial process and the people of Ecuador by their complete disregard for the law and their arrogant attempt to obstruct justice. The lab operator knew in advance of the Judge's order to inspect the lab, yet deliberately prevented the Judge from entering the lab. We must ask, 'what are they trying to hide?'"
Sara McMillen, Chevron's senior scientific advisor said, "We asked for this inspection because we have serious concerns about the technical abilities of Havoc Laboratories to perform the analyses required. For the second time the Court has been denied access to the lab used by the plaintiffs to analyze soil and water samples taken from the judicial inspection sites. This situation further underscores our serious concerns about the credibility of any technical analysis from this lab and any of the technical evidence presented by the plaintiffs."
Laboratory results and the reports of Chevron's technical experts submitted to the Superior Court of Nueva Loja demonstrate that Texaco Petroleum Company (Texpet) carried out an effective remediation program and there is no risk to human health or the environment resulting from Texpet's former operations. Texpet turned over operations to Petroecuador in June 1990.
Chevron uses qualified laboratories in Ecuador and the United States that meet or exceed all ISO 17025 standards used by Organization Accreditation Ecuador (OAE). In Lago Agrio, Enfoquetoc-STL, one of the laboratories in use by Chevron, has achieved full OAE accreditation for analyzing soils and water. Judicial Inspection samples taken by Court-appointed technical experts are also analyzed at two highly reputable laboratories in the United States, as is allowed in the Ecuadorian judicial inspection process.
Back to top