U.S. oil company Chevron-Texaco denies pollution charges in Ecuador

QUITO. March 17. KAZINFORM U.S. oil company Chevron-Texaco denies accusations that it has seriously polluted large parts of the Amazon area in Ecuador and created health problems for local residents.

The company, sued by the affected local residents who demanded compensation of 27 billion U.S. dollars, has asked an Ecuadorian court to reject a research report that the company said was "fraudulent." Chevron-Texaco said proof cited in the report was taken secretly, out of date, and came from people linked to the plaintiffs. Chevron-Texaco noted, too, that evidence of the alleged pollution was not certified by the court. The plaintiffs also do not have sufficient evidence concerning allegations about the company dispersing more than 60 million liters of toxic water during the oil extraction, it said. According to the company, the discharged water was not toxic. Local residents have claimed that Chevron is responsible for contaminating water supplies around the headwaters of the Amazon River and oil-tainted water has caused cancer, skin lesions and other ailments, Kazinform cites Xinhua. The plaintiffs' also claim Texaco, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, left an environmental mess when it departed Ecuador in the early 1990s after decades of oil drilling. Chevron argued that it was spared liability because Texaco carried out a 40-million-U.S.-dollar cleanup project as agreed to with the government in 1998.