Indian lands, including chakras, were taken and bulldozed, typically without compensation. In the village of Pacayacu the central square is occupied by a drilling platform. Officials estimate that the primary pipeline alone has spilled more than 16.8 million gallons of oil into the Amazon over an eighteen-year period. Texaco has ignored oil industry standards that call for the reinjection of waste deep into the ground. The only treatment these chemicals receive occurs when the oil company burns waste pits to reduce petroleum content.
Villagers report that the chemicals return as black rain, polluting what little fresh water remains.
What is not burned off seeps through the unlined walls of the pits into the groundwater. Cattle are found with their stomachs rotted out, crops are destroyed, animals are gone from the forest, and fish disappear from the lakes and rivers. Health officials and community leaders report adults and children with deformities, skin rashes, abscesses, headaches, dysentery, infections, respiratory ailments, and disproportionately high rates of cancer. In 1972 Texaco signed a contract requiring it to turn over all of its operations to Ecuador's national oil company, Petroecuador, by 1992. Petroecuador inherited antiquated equipment, rusting pipelines, and uncounted toxic waste sites.