A class-action lawsuit filed in Ecuador alleges Chevron subsidiary Texaco dumped billions of gallons of toxic wastewater into the Amazon rainforest from 1964 to 1992 while operating oil wells in the area. What has become known as the “Rainforest Chernobyl” is considered one of the world’s worst ecological disasters. The suit, filed on behalf of approximately 30,000 rainforest dwellers, alleges the highly carcinogenic toxic waste has caused numerous deaths from cancer, spontaneous miscarriages and genetic malformations, and demands that Chevron pay for the cleanup, estimated to cost at least $6 billion. In February 2011, a judge of the provincial court of justice of Sucumbíos in Lago Agrio found Chevron liable and ordered the company to pay $8.65 billion for remediation and an equal amount in punitive damages. The judge also ordered Chevron to pay $860 million to the Amazon Defense Coalition, the group formed to represent the plaintiffs. The judgment, which was upheld by Ecuador’s highest court in 2018, is largely symbolic: Chevron no longer operates in Ecuador, and efforts to collect on the judgment in other countries have so far been unsuccessful.