US oil giant fined $8 billion for Ecuadorian pollution
Published:Tuesday | February 15, 2011 | 9:59 AM
A court in Ecuador has fined US oil giant Chevron a reported $8 billion for polluting a large part of the country's Amazon region.
The oil firm Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping billions of gallons of toxic material into unlined pits and Amazon rivers.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadoreans in a case which dragged on for nearly two decades.
Campaigners say crops were damaged and farm animals killed, and that local cancer rates increased as a result of dumping.
Condemning the ruling as fraudulent, Chevron said it would appeal.