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The Problem
A swift five-hour plane from the southernmost border of the United States, in the
northwest corner of Spanish speaking South America, the Republic of Ecuador lies
nestled upon a brilliant terrestrial triumvirate of rainforest, Andean mountains, and
lustrous coastal land. Against that varied backdrop, in one the many small towns situated
in the Amazonian basin, lives a four-year-old girl, Diana, and her extended family. Their
small house includes a convenience store whose entrance faces the dusty road built by a
for the oil companies so many years ago. At so young an age, Diana knows and
understands very little of the hazardous situation that surrounds her or the dangerous
agenda that has been and continues to be promulgated by such companies as Chevron
Texaco and Halliburton in the region where she resides. Nonetheless, Diana’s body
remains a striking testament to Ecuador’s tumultuous thirty year affair with American oil
drilling; labeled the first young girl to present with a case of terminal bone marrow
leukemia in the region in which she lives, Diana is the ultimate proof that oil kills.
Diana’s heartrending plight unquestionably began long before her birth. While pregnant,
Diana’s mother had no choice but to take advantage of the meager resources readily
available to her; limited by extreme poverty as well as the contaminated conditions
surrounding her, she consumed food and water tainted by oil seepage and passed each
day of her pregnancy within a region that had not known clean soil and water for over
twenty years. Consequently, Diana was born with bones already laced with cancer and a
prognosis that left little room for hope.
Presently, in the United States, approximately one case of childhood lymphoblastic or
myeloid leukemia is recorded for every one hundred thousand people.¹ In addition, when
administered within three to four weeks of diagnosis, a cocktail of three FDA-approved
medications suffices to force 95% of these cancers into either long-term or permanent
remission.² However, in the area where Diana lives, several hundred children suffer daily
with cancer in a town whose population barely exceed thirty four thousand people. Some
of these children, like Diana, endure steamy eight-hour bus rides to the capital once a
month to receive chemotherapy treatments that only occasionally result in remission.
However, most, bound by their family’s economic situation and cultural beliefs, remain
caught in the poisonous environment into which they were born. Ultimately, many of
these children as well as their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and friends
will perish due to cancer and other fatal illnesses, each one attributable to and
exacerbated by continuing oil leaks and contamination and each one potentially treatable
by the instruments of modern medicine.
¤
In 1964, after tentative drilling along Ecuador’s borders, Chevron Texaco, an American-
based oil giant, announced the discovery of crude oil in the Amazonian Lago Agrio
region. Subsequently, Texaco mapped and established numerous drilling stations in and
around Lago Agrio, eventually clear-cutting a 2.4 million acre, 80 mile swatch of
Ecuadorian rainforest in order to accommodate its machinery and pipelines.³ However,
this story did not remain one of strictly oil and pipelines, but evolved into a complex
problem of oil transport and the disposal of waste products, including waters and muds
involved in drilling processes and characterized by high level of carcinogens and heavy
metals.
Texaco’s eventual solution to the problem of waste disposal not only blatantly ignored
United States oil legislation, but also unleashed a flood of unregulated environmental
contamination and destruction in the Lago Agrio region and beyond. Each day, millions
of gallons of newly drilled crude oil would collect in large Texaco holding tanks located
in scattered production stations throughout the affected area. In these tanks, the toxic
waste water and drilling muds separated from the crude oil. Skimmed off mechanically,
this waste would then be pumped with preliminary oil runoff into hundreds of unlined
pits throughout oil territory. Additionally, Chevron Texaco began releasing this waste
water, oil, and mud directly into local rivers, contaminating the drinking, bathing, and
washing water of hundreds of thousands of locals.
By 1992, when Chevron Texaco decisively pulled out of the Lago Agrio region, 18.4
billion gallons of runoff and oil had been deliberately ejected into over six hundred
unlined holding pits and regional waters. The biggest threat presented by such unlined
pits and contaminated rivers was and continues to be the exorbitant level of toxicity
associated with them as well as their chemical nature. The oil runoff and excess water
collected in each pit are each incredibly rich in the radioactive carcinogen Chromium 6 as
well as free radicals, hydrocarbons, Arsenic, Barium, Cadmium, Cobalt, Fluoride,
Mercury, and lead.
The Consequences
Regional contamination remains the most widespread and dangerous consequence of oil
drilling and unchecked waste disposal. The geography and ecology of the Lago Agrio
region contribute primarily to the intensity of the damage. Firstly, the water table in the
Amazonian basin is very high, meaning that the average depth at which drinking water is
found underground is significantly less than that of other nations and ecological regions.
As a result, seepage of waste waters and discharged oil results in the direct contamination
of regional drinking water, rivers, and wells. Secondly, contaminated water and oil
permeate aquifers, or underground beds of sand, gravel, or porous rock that store water.
These aquifers lie further below the surface of the earth than groundwater and contain
vast networks of slow-moving water. What is most alarming about the contamination of
aquifers is that, unlike rivers and streams which are relatively fast moving, aquifers
remain relatively stagnant and are not easily replenished or naturally filtered. Thus,
aquifers store greater concentrations of collected contaminants for far longer periods of
time.
The contamination of the active water table and regional rivers has resulted in significant
consequences for the area. Most obviously, drinking water has become dangerously
poisoned by cancerous oil toxins. However, due to the invasive poverty that characterizes
the Lago Agrio region, citizens cannot avoid consuming this water and using it for their
cooking, cleaning, and bathing activities. Additionally, plants grown in contaminated soil
and treated with contaminated water, transmit toxins when consumed as do animals that
have grazed contaminated land. This process of transmission through consumption is
known as biological magnification.
Water and oil are not the sole byproducts of oil drilling, transport, and refinement. The
preliminary crude oil raised by oil wells and pumps is naturally combined with harmful
natural gases. These natural gases, like the formation water, must be separated from the
crude oil in order to increase profitability and ease of refinement. This process of
separation is achieved by the use of flares which are lit atop the oil and feed on the
natural gases that rise to the surface. The unregulated incineration of these natural gases
increases worldwide carbon dioxide production which in turn exacerbates the Global
Greenhouse Effect. Locally, the vapors produced through incineration rise, condense in
the upper atmosphere, and bond with atmospheric water molecules, forming acid rain
which then falls upon the district, polluting the remaining clean water sources not directly
affected by oil dumping.
Furthermore, carcinogens and heavy metals are not the only compounds contained in oil
and oil runoff that pose a threat to animal, plant, and human life in the Ecuadorian
Amazon. The high sodium content of the formation waters, derived hundred of years ago
from an extinct inland ocean, also poses considerable problems for the rainforest and
related plant and animal life. Sodium dehydrates plant cells and disrupts cellular
reproduction and growth: as a result, oiling waste products cause widespread
geographical devastation and deforestation in the Amazonian Basin. Additionally, farm
animals and pets are incredibly attracted to sodium and are thus drawn to drinking waters
polluted with high-sodium oil wastes. Drinking directly and continually from these
polluted sources causes these animals to be poisoned more quickly which, in turn,
increases biological magnification among populations.
In both people and animals, free radicals, hydrocarbons, and radioactive metals such as
those incorporated in drilling muds, oil, and formation water interferes with the body’s
natural reproductive processes. At the microcellular level, these materials prevent the
proper functioning of the body’s reproductive chromosomes by causing fragmentation
and increased mutations. Non-functioning chromosomes or incorrectly functioning DNA
disturbs the body’s natural growth and life processes, leading to gene mutations, birth and
mental defects, cancers, tumors, skin disease, and numerous other health issues that are
rarely addressed in oil regions due to a lack of medical supplies and medical expertise. As
a result, thousands of citizens die each year from diagnosable and treatable cancers and
diseases.
The People
Before the introduction of oil drilling in Ecuador in 1964, several indigenous groups
called the Amazon Rainforest home, their lives interwoven with the flow and flux of the
 forest and ultimately dependent upon the resources it produced. The three native
communities that inhabit the region utilized by Chevron Texaco until 1992 are known as
the Cofan, the Secoya, and the Siona. Although all three of these groups inhabited the
same geographic region, over the centuries each developed and perpetuated its own
separate and distinct culture and traditions. These people and their varied practices and
beliefs contributed to the overall vitality and biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest,
making it one of the most culturally distinct areas in South America.
Originally nomadic tribes, the people of the Cofan, the Secoya, and the Siona arduously
migrated over the Andean mountain range several hundred years ago, ultimately settling
in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin. Here they thrived for hundred of years within the harsh
and humid climate of the Amazon. In due course, each of the tribes became not only well
adapted to their Amazonian lifestyle, but dependent on the abundance of animal and plant
life that existed there. Plants whose existence was not only fragile but precarious became
staples of their diet as well as their spiritual ceremonies. Additionally, animals that would
later be faced with extinction from oil drilling became important facets of indigenous
families and meals. Eventually, earth and indigenous human became inextricably linked
in a delicate web of give and take that allowed for the type of harmony vital to
indigenous civilization.
However, in the twentieth century, the advent of big business and the need for profitable
fuel spurred a movement that would eventually lead to the systematic destruction of
indigenous life as it had come to be characterized. When Chevron Texaco explosively
infiltrated the cradle of indigenous society in the late twentieth century, the effects were
disastrous and widespread. Most importantly, Texaco oiling released unchecked amounts
of oil and oiling byproducts into the two major rivers utilized by the indigenous tribes,
the Napo and Aguarico Rivers, a practice that deprived the Amazonian people of one of
their most vital resources. Oil release into the rivers became frequent and one spill, whose
volume amounted to more than that of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, caused the Napo
River to run black with oil for nearly a week.
Eventually, toxic oil release greatly reduced the plant, fish, and animal populations,
severely crippling the ability of indigenous tribes to subsist off of the land and rivers.
Moreover, animal populations that did not suffer immediate extinction became heavily
contaminated: fish in the Shushufindi River, a tributary of the Napo River, caused so
many deaths when eaten that many native families had no choice but to move upriver or
face sure demise. Despite avoiding consumption of contaminated fish, indigenous
communities could not completely escape the inevitable grip of Texaco greed. The rivers
had become such a critical part of native life that community members had no choice but
to continue using them for bathing, cooking, and transportation purposes. Because oiling
had reduced local rivers to virtual uselessness, indigenous tribes resorted to hunting in
order to supplement their diets and fulfill their nutritional needs. Unfortunately, constant
and continued hunting has so thoroughly depleted animal populations, communities can
no longer rely on forest hunting to provide sufficient nourishment.
Overwhelmed by the struggle to hang onto the cultures of the Secoya, the Cofan, and the
Siona, many indigenous young peopled opt to leave the forests of the Amazon in search
of better opportunities. The burgeoning oil towns and the capitalism that they endorse
have proven attractive to the most recent generations of natives; hundreds of indigenous
children and adolescents have deserted their Amazonian homes in hopes of entering the
nearby cash economy which does not necessarily promise a more lucrative lifestyle but at
least guarantees a relatively stable one. Ultimately, many of these migrants become
entrenched in the oiling infrastructure that forms the basis of the nearby economy. Upon
arriving in bordering cities and towns, many indigenous adolescents begin working for
the very oil companies that destroyed their homes and families in the first place.
Overall, it is environmental contamination, the migration of indigenous youth, and the
usurping of land by government-endorsed colonists that has resulted in the virtual
extinction of indigenous cultures in the Lago Agrio region. Presently, the depletion of
many indigenous groups follows the pattern establish by the Cofan, whose tribal
community numbered 15,000 individuals only two decades ago and now is comprised by
only a few hundred aging members. With the recovery of the Amazon region in which
these indigenous groups live estimated at ten years and toting a price tag of five billion
dollars, it is unlikely that these sacred people will soon see relief. Unfortunately, as the
days, months, and years pass, these cultures continue to dwindle. If the situation in the
Ecuadorian Amazon continues along this fatal route, indigenous communities there will
most certainly face decimation within the next few decades.
Works Cited
¹ Ledingham, J.G.G. and Warrell, David A. Concise Oxford Textbook of Medicine
Oxford University Press, Inc. New York, NY 2002
² Ledingham, J.G.G. and Warrell, David A. Concise Oxford Textbook of Medicine
Oxford University Press, Inc. New York, NY 2002
³ www.TexacoRainforest.Com

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