13 Sep 2007
Use of Secret, Unapproved Research Teams Further Demonstrates Bias and Lack of Transparency in Ecuador Suit
NUEVA LOJA, Ecuador, September 13, 2007 - Richard Cabrera, the court-appointed engineer responsible for overseeing the ongoing expert determination in the environmental suit against Chevron in Ecuador, is using unsanctioned teams to conduct unsupervised and unapproved field research, in clear violation of court directives, Chevron said today.
In a petition to the Superior Court of Nueva Loja, Chevron detailed how Mr. Cabrera has deployed unidentified teams of researchers to search for evidence of environmental impacts outside the scope of his court-mandated obligations without first receiving the necessary judicial approvals. Further, these teams began their work in advance of Mr. Cabrera being appointed to his post and days before Mr. Cabrera's official inspection even began.
The Court's original mandate for the expert determination required that work on "other fronts" described within Mr. Cabrera's work plan would begin only after he had presented a description of the teams to be deployed to the Court, along with details about their technical qualifications. It would also include a summary of the work to be performed so that both it and Chevron could verify that the work would be performed in a scientifically appropriate manner, by qualified professionals and in accordance with the Law. Instead, as Chevron's filing states, "the extreme secrecy with which Eng. Cabrera is conducting the examination is tantamount to the construction of an iron curtain around the entire proceeding." According to Chevron, in the interest of fairness this violation leaves the Court no other appropriate response but to declare the evidence collected by these teams be considered null and void.
"Cabrera's lack of transparency has irreparably harmed Chevron's ability to receive a fair trial. How can we defend ourselves when Mr. Cabrera continues to violate Court ordered rules of evidence collection?" said Ricardo Reis Veiga, Managing Counsel of Chevron . "Mr. Cabrera has demonstrated his bias throughout the inspection process and it is becoming abundantly clear that he and his secret teams are on a quest to assign blame to Chevron, regardless of what the legitimate scientific evidence may show. He has been blinded to his legal and ethical responsibilities in this matter."
It should be noted that Chevron's numerous petitions urging the Court to reconsider Cabrera's appointment in light of his "illegal and unethical" behavior have gone unanswered, as have its many requests seeking that Cabrera be required to comply with Court orders regarding how his work should be carried out.
Cabrera's History of Gross Misconduct and Incompetence
A mining engineer by trade with no apparent experience in evaluating environmental impacts, Mr. Cabrera's field work has been distinguished for all of the wrong reasons. He has committed a series of fundamental scientific errors, displayed ignorance of the most basic scientific protocols, and demonstrated clear bias towards plaintiffs at every one of the 14 site inspections he has conducted to date. Mr. Cabrera continues to:
Blame the wrong party: Cabrera has sampled from areas recently remediated by Petroecuador and sites exclusively produced by Petroecuador.
Provide inadequate site assessment: Cabrera has not collected a single sample from surface water or from drinking water resources such as water wells despite plaintiffs' attorneys' claims that contaminated drinking water is the source of cancer and other illnesses. Further, he has told the court that he plans to only collect 88 soil and water samples in the former concession area of more than 400,000 hectares, which is hardly enough for a proper scientific evaluation.. He has inexplicably discarded at least 40% of the soil borings he has drilled. For the Shushufindi oil field, Mr. Cabrera only investigated 3 wells before moving on to the next field.
Conduct secretive proceedings: In addition to fielding secret teams, Cabrera has consistently denied or severely restricted Chevron's right to properly observe the technical proceedings and has refused to provide the name of the analytical laboratory to Chevron or to the court.
Display ignorance of basic scientific procedure: Mr. Cabrera's lack of environmental expertise has been repeatedly evident as he continues to improperly collect soil and groundwater samples. In particular, his ignorance about what constitutes groundwater is evident by not drilling deep enough to reach it and confusing it with rainwater.
Maintain improper ties to plaintiffs: Mr. Cabrera's close working relationship with plaintiffs is well established. He has negotiated and received advanced payment of fees directly from the FDA, the potential beneficiary to receive any payments that might result from this litigation. Further, his own technical team is made up of technicians who had worked for plaintiffs' attorneys during the first phase of the judicial inspection process.
Fail to follow basic chain of custody requirements: Mr. Cabrera has repeatedly violated court orders by failing to adopt the most basic measures to ensure that the integrity of his samples are protected by chain of custody procedures, and that the samples are being tested in an accredited laboratory. These are requirements that have been ordered and met in other environmental lawsuits in Ecuador.
For more information about Texpet's former operations in Ecuador, see: http://www.texaco.com/sitelets/ecuador/en/
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