Erin Brockovich

Essay by kinkyangelCollege, UndergraduateB+, January 2008

download word file, 9 pages 4.3

Identify the problemThe incident with PG&E's release of toxins in the town's drinking water all began in 1952 in the town of Hinckley, California. The company that currently provides natural gas and electricity to the state of northern California is the same company that released poison toxins into the water also known as Hexavalent Chromium 6. Many residents of Hinckley were becoming vitally ill without any explanation or cause of what the underlying factor was. On December 7, 1987 officials from the company advised the State of California they had detected levels of Hexavalent chromium 6 in a groundwater monitoring well north of the compressor station's waste water ponds. The levels were ten times greater than the maximum amount allowed by law. (Lawbuzz, 2001). The Chromium 6 had leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Compressor Station causing many of the residents of Hinckley to becoming vitally ill.

They tried covering up the event by informing the residents of Hinckley that their illnesses were not brought on by the release of the poison toxins in their area. Erin Brockovich who played an advocate to many of the victims of the contamination found through extensive research that PG&E was responsible for the client's illnesses. Erin had worked for Ed Masry as a filing clerk and was overlooking some documentation and had asked to investigate in relation to real estate purchases proposed by PG&E. What had caught her attention was the amount of clients that had become ill & PG&E's pressure to buy property from these ill clients. All of these circumstances led Erin to believe that something wasn't right.

Research the factsBefore Erin Brockovich took the lead as the advocate, there were no other present individuals who had researched the event nor even combined the...