An earlier lawsuit based on Brockovich's investigation of PG&E's desert land records culminated with the company paying $333 million to some Hinkley townsfolk in 1996. That lawsuit served as the basis for the movie starring Julia Roberts that made a celebrity out of the formerly obscure legal assistant.
The rural residents and their attorneys said that community exposure to the carcinogen hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6 — in desert water allegedly tainted by PG&E in the 1950s and 1960s — led to widespread illness and deaths.
PG&E used chromium-infused water as a coolant at some of its natural gas compressor stations. It allegedly discharged that tainted water into local groundwater supplies.
Lawyers allegedly held the award money for nearly six months before it was dispersed. Hinkley residents received no explanation for the delay. They had lost Erin as an advocate: "suddenly, they couldn’t get through to anyone, not even Brockovich." Because of the secrecy imposed on the arbitration process, Sharp makes the case that it’s impossible to determine where interest on the award money went. Where’s the rest of our money? plaintiff Carol Smith asked. Many legitimate questions about the award disbursement remain unanswered. A report about Erin
Brockovich the real person, not Julia Roberts, appeared in Entertainment Weekly (5/12/00). Several male acquaintance of Brockovich, one of whom was portrayed as a supportive, upstanding character in the film, allegedly demanded that Brockovich pay them off. Otherwise, they would supply the tabloids with a story that Brockovich and Ed Masry had had an affair and that Brockovich was an unfit mother. Both Brockovich and Masry cooperated in an FBI sting operation, which led to the men being arrested for extortion.
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