WASHINGTON, 20 August — Erin Brockovich became a household name when a movie made about her life was released last year. Actress Julia Roberts won an Academy Award for portraying her.
Brockovich is a story of how anyone can make monumental changes in life. Without any legal training, she began an investigation that eventually resulted in the Pacific Gas and Electric Company paying $333 million in damages in 1996 to more than 600 residents of Hinkley, California.
It was the largest settlement ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in United States history.
Brockovich and her boss, Ed Masry, were able to establish that the health of the Hinkley residents was devastated because a highly toxic chemical, “chromium-6,” used by the giant utility company at its compressor station, had leaked into the area groundwater. The company knew of the dangers but failed to warn residents, and as a result, many people in the town died — slowly poisoned from drinking water. Brockovich says she is not a “Lone Ranger,” and that without the help of the lawyers where she worked, the case would have never happened.
Speaking yesterday at the National Press Club, Brockovich described herself as a “dyslexic with an attitude,” as the reason why she never gave up pursuing justice, despite the many pitfalls and setbacks in the Pacific Gas case.
“Chromium-6 (or hexavalent chromium) is not only dangerous by inhalation, chromium-6 is also dangerous by oral ingestion — and both cause cancer,” said Brockovich.
“Not only did the residents in Hinkley, California, drink the water, they swam in it, too. They ran this toxic water through their swamp coolers. They irrigated their land with this water. Their entire environment became toxic water.”
“Due to their exposure to chromium-6, some of the finest human beings I have ever encountered have died,” said Brockovich. “It took an incredible amount of courage for them to come forward and tell me the truth. I am sad to report that before this case was settled in 1996, 50 of the original plaintiffs have died. And since this case settled in 1996, 51 additional employees died.”
Brockovich spoke about the tragedy of the employees who were only following orders when they poisoned the town’s water system.
“The PG&E employees were only doing what they were instructed to do. These men were absolutely grieved over what had gone on, and they felt so responsible for what had happened. But unbeknownst to them, they also had been exposed to the chromium-6... many of them have now died.”
Asked why the managers of the utility company were not criminally prosecuted, Brockovich said it was mainly due to the statute-of-limitations, meaning the legal time had passed for them to be prosecuted.
Brockovich said that despite the successful lawsuit, numerous areas across the United States are still using chromium-6.
Groundwater contamination and the death of innocent people does not have to happen, but it does, due to corporate greed, said Brockovich. She insisted her intentions are not to “destroy corporate America,” but to create “public awareness and work towards corporate American taking responsibility for its actions.” Asked if she was angry at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and politicians who oppose laws to rein in polluters and clean up toxic sites, Brockovich answered half of the question. “The EPA are not the bad guys here. They are understaffed and under-funded. There is no way that they could possible get to every potential toxic site in this country.”
She said the responsibility should be put upon the corporations that make the mess. “I think that when a corporation clearly knows they have what they have done, they need to get out there and clean it up and be accountable to human beings.”
Brockovich said the positive result of the movie was that “we’ve been able to reach a broader mass of people to create public awareness about these issues.” Her current campaign, she said, has to do with toxic mold on the environment and people’s health.
“The irony of my getting a bonus in a toxic litigation is that I bought a toxic home,” she said, “where high levels of stachybotrys, aspergillus and Penicillium were found in the construction defects throughout the home.
“We have been working in the state of California to change some legislation to possibly hold contractors to a higher standard of care.”
Brockovich is also writing a motivational book scheduled to be released this fall.
