QUITO, Ecuador — An Ecuadorean judge ruled Monday in an epic environmental case that Chevron was responsible for oil-drilling contamination in a wide swath of Ecuador’s northern jungle and ordered the oil giant to pay $8.6 billion in damages and cleanup costs.
The amount was far below the $27.3 billion recommended by a court-appointed expert. Whether the plaintiffs — who include indigenous groups who say their traditional hunting and fishing grounds were decimated by billions of gallons of toxic waste — can collect remains to be seen.
Chevron called the decision “illegitimate and unenforceable.”
Both sides might appeal.
Chevron has long contended it could never get a fair trial in Ecuador. The high- stakes case over a Rhode-Island-size oil patch dug out of virgin rain forest has been winding its way through U.S. and Ecuadorean courts for 17 years.
