March 2009
Environmental activist Donald Moncayo takes visitors on what he calls "toxic tours" of waste sites he says Texaco left behind when it left Ecuador in the 1990s. Here in Shushufindi, Moncayo pokes a long pole into a pool filled with drilling sludge. Pits such as this dot a region nearly the size of Delaware.
Juan Forero-The Washington Post
March 2009
In nearly three decades in Ecuador, Texaco built the country's oil industry from scratch, erecting grids of pipes and other infrastructure across a swath of jungle. Children now use the pipelines as makeshift jungle gyms.
Juan Forero-The Washington Post
March 2009
Pablo Fajardo, lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001, talks next to a waste site as indigenous residents listen to his arguments. Fajardo grew up poor in the region and once labored as an oil worker before becoming a lawyer. He says the company polluted a huge stretch of jungle, failed to clean it up and is now trying to avoid responsibility.
Juan Forero-The Washington Post
March 2009
Diego Larrea, center, is one of a team of high-powered attorneys from Quito, Ecuador's capital, who say that Texaco cleaned up polluted sites and that the state oil company, Petroecuador, is responsible for the contamination. Here, Larrea argues his case during recent outdoor proceedings.
Juan Forero-The Washington Post
April, 1989
If the judge on the Ecuador case rules against Chevron, the company could face the largest damages award ever handed down in an environmental trial, dwarfing the sum awarded in the Exxon Valdez case. Here, crude oil from the Exxon Valdez swirls on the surface of Alaska's Prince William Sound near Naked Island on April 9, 1989.
John Gaps Iii-AP
April 1989
The landmark case against Exxon Valdez was brought after the tanker ran aground March 24, 1989, spilling about 11 million gallons of crude oil. Here, a worker cleans up the oily surf at Naked Island in Prince William Sound. Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has compared the situation in Ecuador to the ecological damage caused by the Exxon Valdez spill.
Chris Wilkins-AFP/Getty Images
December 1998
Villager Manuel Silva pokes through an oil pit in Lago Agrio. Plaintiffs in the case say that for 18 years, Texaco unloaded drilling mud and wastewater into hundreds of unlined pits or directly into waterways. Chevron acknowledges that Texaco used such holding ponds but argues that they are standard in the industry, including in the United States.
Dolores Ochoa-AP
December 2000
A Petroecuador employee replaces a section of pipe that exploded in Lago Agrio, a dusty oil town named for Sour Lake, Texas, where Texaco got its start in 1903. Proceedings in the trial recently alternated between Lago Agrio's ramshackle courthouse and visits to oil production sites and waste pits in the area.
Martin Bernetti-AFP/Getty Images
March 2001
Flames rise from an uncovered oil pit in La Victoria in 2001. Texaco's successor and former partner, Petroecuador, took over operations in 1990, and Chevron says the state oil company is responsible for hundreds of oil spills since then.
Carlos Villalon-Getty Images
May 2003
An ecological activist protests at a Texaco station in Quito against alleged environmental damage by the oil company. The sign reads: Chevron Texaco Equals Death. Chevron bought Texaco in 2001 and inherited the lawsuit.
Martin Bernetti-AFP/Getty Images
October 21, 2003
A waste pit filled with crude oil lies in a jungle clearing near the Amazonian town of Sacha on Oct. 21, 2003, the day hearings began in Lago Agrio after the case was moved to Ecuador.
Lou Dematteis-Reuters
October 21, 2003
On the day civil proceedings against Texaco started in Lago Agrio in 2003, members of the Secoya indigenous community rallied outside the courthouse.
AFP/Getty Images
October 2003
Leaves covered with oil hang over a contaminated natural pool on the outskirts of Lago Agrio. Unlined oil pits are common in the industry, including in Texas, as Chevron claims. Texas Railroad Commission officials said that in the state, such pits are used to hold mud and heavy metals only temporarily, before being re-injected into the ground or otherwise disposed of.
Martin Bernetti-AFP/Getty Images
October 2003
A protester demonstrates outside the Lago Agrio courthouse during the proceedings in 2003. Chevron argues that Texaco complied with Ecuadoran law and that the case is driven more by emotion and nationalism than by science.
Martin Bernetti-AFP/Getty Images
March 24
In 2004, a woman protests against Texaco at the airport in Coca as company technicians arrive to study the area for possible environmental damage caused by their activity.
Martin Bernetti-AFP/Getty Images
August 2005
In 2005, employees of Petroecuador work to clean up an oil spill about 23 miles from Lago Agrio. In August of that year, Petroecuador had suspended crude exports amid strikes and protests by workers and locals who were demanding a bigger share of oil revenues.
Santiago Armas-AFP/Getty Images
April 2007
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa speaks to reporters during a visit to Los Sachas in 2007. He openly sided with the plaintiffs, accusing Texaco of causing irreversible damage in Ecuador's Amazon region.
Stringer-AFP/Getty Images
Gallery Credits:
Producer, Photo Editor Stephen Cook
Text Editor Liz Heron
Reporter Juan Forero
