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Home > Our Priorities > Business and Human Rights > Letter to ChevronTexaco Corporation (CVX) and Enclosed Resolution
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Letter to ChevronTexaco Corporation (CVX) and Enclosed Resolution


November 22, 2004

Mr. Charles James
Vice President, General Counsel
ChevronTexaco Corp
6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd.
San Ramon, CA 94583

Dear Mr. James:

Amnesty International USA currently holds 50 shares of ChevronTexaco Corp. valued at over $2,000 and owned for over one year. It is our intent to continue holding stock of more than $2,000 in market value through the 2005 annual meeting of ChevronTexaco Corp. We will provide verification of our ownership position upon request.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with over 1.8 million members worldwide and with more than 40 years of experience working on human rights issues. Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) is the U.S. Section of Amnesty International. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls upon every organ of society, which includes companies and business operations in general, to protect and promote human rights, including the rights to health, food and water, and to "life, liberty and security of person." According to the UNNorms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, companies, within their spheres of activity and influence, have responsibilities in connection with the interests, health, safety, and human rights of the communities in which they operate. As a stockholder, we are troubled by the appearance that ChevronTexaco has failed to adequately address the ongoing health and environmental concerns of the communities affected by Texaco's twenty years of operations in Ecuador between 1972 and 1992.

Therefore, I hereby notify you that AIUSA is co-filing the enclosed shareholder resolution in concert with other investors led by Trillium Asset Management Corp. The resolution is submitted for consideration and action by the stockholders at the next annual meeting and for inclusion in the proxy statement under Rule 14-a8 of the General Rules and Regulations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. We would appreciate your indicating in the proxy statement that AIUSA is a cosponsor of this resolution. We will be represented in person or by proxy at the annual meeting as required by the SEC Rules. In the meantime we will like to point to Trillium Asset Management Corp's Assistant Vice President, Shelley Alpern, as our acting liaison with ChevronTexaco Corp's management, and we would appreciate being copied in any related correspondence.


Sincerely,

Mila Rosenthal
Director, Business and Human Rights Program
Amnesty International USA

Encl: Resolution Text

WHEREAS:

Between 1972 and 1992, Texaco and Petroecuador extracted over 1.4 billion barrels of oil from the Ecuadorian Amazon. As operator, Texaco designed, built and managed all exploration, extraction and transportation facilities.

During this time, an estimated 19 million gallons of oil were spilled from the trans-Ecuadorian pipeline, more than the Exxon Valdez. Texaco also systematically dumped an estimated 18.5 billion gallons of toxic wastewaters into open, unlined pits, waterways and wetlands. It was standard practice in the U.S. to re-inject such waters into the ground.

In 1998, Texaco completed a limited cleanup of 156 of the 627 unlined toxic waste pits through an agreement with the Ecuadorian government. Texaco and Petroecuador paid for and oversaw an environmental audit by an "independent" consultancy for whom full payment depended upon Texaco and Petroecuador's acceptance of their final report and environmental management plan.

Evidence has emerged challenging the adequacy of cleanup:

  • A 10/03 study by Petroecuador and Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia tested soil and water samples from 323 wells and 627 waste pools left over in camps operated by Texaco. It found hydrocarbon contamination exceeding levels set by Ecuadorian environmental law, and revealed severe hydrocarbon contamination of five large wetland areas next to Texaco facilities.
  • Waste pits designated "clean" contained hydrocarbon levels 50-500 times those permitted in the U.S.
  • Groundwater contamination was not remediated.

Findings on the contamination's devastating health impacts on neighboring communities include:

  • A 1994 study conducted by Ecuador's Center for Economic and Social Rights found that drinking, bathing and fishing water samples near contamination sites contained levels of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) 10-1,000 times greater than those considered acceptable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
  • According to the Petroecuador study, exposure to and consumption of the contaminated waters has led to numerous types of infections and cancers.
  • A 1999 study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Ecuadorian health authorities found eight types of cancer in San Carlos, a community near former Texaco wells, far exceeding historical incidence rates.
  • A 2004 study published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health found that children under 15 are three times more likely to contract leukemia in the area where Texaco operated than in other Amazonian provinces. The risk of cancer is highest among children younger than four.


RESOLVED:
The shareholders request that the Board of Directors prepare a report on new initiatives by management to address the specific health and environmental concerns of communities affected by unremediated waste and other sources of oil-related contamination in the area where Texaco operated in Ecuador.

SUPPORTING STATEMENT
In our view, Texaco has a continuing ethical obligation to redress the environment and health consequences of its activities in Ecuador. Negative publicity generated by this situation damages our credibility as an environmentally responsible corporate citizen and jeopardizes our ability to compete in the global marketplace.


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