Do you remember the film Erin Brockovich from a few years back? Julia Roberts won an Oscar for playing the feisty legal clerk Erin Brockovich who took on Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). The utility company was accused of contaminating the water in Hinkley, California and Brockovich doggedly pursued the case against them. At the end of the movie, the case was settled by PG&E and the residents of Hinkley were awarded $333 million and were given a pledge by PG&E to clean up the contamination. Queue credits and angelic music to end this story.
Wait a second, you had better hold the warm fuzzies because Brockovich is back in Hinkley and still fighting PG&E.
Chromium 6 was used by PG&E in the ‘50s and ‘60s to clean equipment at the station. Not only is the contamination not getting better, Brockovich says it is getting worse.
Local Roberta Walker had her first Hinkley house purchased by PG&E after they found high levels of chromium 6 in the wells. She liked the area, so she used the money to buy a house in an area that PG&E assured her was safe, saying that the contaminated water plume would never reach it.
Guess what was found in her well this past summer? You got it – chromium 6. Walker, saddled with a myriad of medical problems, called Brockovich and left the ominous message “Matter of life or death, I need you to call me.”
The two have been friends since the first round with PG&E, so naturally Brockovich came running. This time, she also blames state and local regulators for not staying on PG&E about the cleanup.
Oh, she still finds plenty of faults with the company. “PG&E are the ones that know where that plume is and moving. They have the money, they’ve got the experts, they’ve got the maps. They should have been warning these people a long time ago: ‘The plume is coming your way and you’ve got to go,’” Brochovich said.
What does PG&E have to say about this? PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith says the company is “absolutely committed to the cleanup of the plum and control of the area.” He said there has been success in containing the plume and that it remains unclear as to whether the plume is growing or not.
So at the end of the movie, you may have thought the fight between the people of Hinkley and PG&E was over, but it appears it may have just begun.