Erin Brockovich

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This article refers to an individual by the name of Erin Brockovich. For the movie by the same name, see Erin Brockovich (film)

Erin Brockovich-Ellis (born Erin L. E. Pattee June 22, 1960 in Lawrence, Kansas) is a legal clerk who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the $28 billion Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), of California in 1993.

Contents

[edit] Anderson v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

The case alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium, also known as Chromium (VI), in the southern California town of Hinkley. At the center of the case is a facility called the Hinkley Compressor Station, part of a natural gas pipeline connecting to the San Francisco Bay Area and constructed in 1952. The case was settled in 1996 for $333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in U.S. history. Chromium (VI) is known to be toxic and carcinogenic,[1] and the 0.58 ppm in the groundwater in Hinkley exceeded the current Maximum Contaminant Level of 0.1 ppm currently set by the Environmental Protection Agency.[2] However, it has not been established whether Chromium (VI) is carcinogenic when ingested orally. When Harvard's School of Public Health gave Brockovich an award in 2005, scientists were divided on the merits of her work.[3]

Working with Thousand Oaks, California-based lawyer Edward L. Masry, Brockovich went on to participate in other anti-pollution lawsuits. One accuses Whitman Corporation of chromium contamination in Willits, California. Another lawsuit, which lists 1,200 plaintiffs, alleges contamination near PG&E's Kettleman Hills Compressor Station in Kings County, California, along the same pipeline as the Hinkley site.

After experiencing problems with mold contamination in her own home in the Conejo Valley, Brockovich became a prominent activist and educator in this area as well. Today, Brockovich is a noted speaker in demand all over the U.S.

[edit] Biography

Brockovich was raised in Lawrence, Kansas, and attended Kansas State University in Manhattan. She worked as a management trainee for Kmart in 1981 but quit after a few months and entered some potentially lucrative beauty pageants. After winning Miss Pacific Coast in 1981, she soon gave up pageant life because she found it shallow. She has lived in California since 1982.

[edit] Family

  • Father: Frank Pattee (retired industrial engineer)
  • Mother: Betty Jo O'Neal Pattee (retired journalist)
  • Husband: Shawn Brown (m. 1982, div. 1987, one son, one daughter)
  • Son: Matthew Brown
  • Daughter: Katie Brown
  • Husband: Steven Brockovich (m. 1989, div. 1990, one daughter)
  • Daughter: Elizabeth
  • Husband: Eric Ellis (m. Mar-1999)
  • Daughter: Bonnie Cedrone

[edit] Popular culture

Her story is the topic of a feature film, Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts in the title role. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing in a Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich. Erin Brockovich herself portrayed a cameo role as a waitress named Julia (most likely a reference to Julia Roberts, who played Brockovich).

After the success of the film about her, Brockovich was the target of a blackmail attempt by her old boyfriend, George (played by Aaron Eckhart in the movie), one of her ex-husbands, and an attorney who threatened to smear her reputation as a parent. She called the police, who later arrested the three for extortion after conducting a sting operation.

In the TV show The Simpsons' episode Sweets and Sour Marge, Homer twists Brockovich's name and makes a few puns referring to Marge: "Erin Choco-Snitch", "Blue-hairin Brocko-witch" and Marge's favorite: "Carin' A-lot-ovich". Brockovich is also appearing in The Simpsons Movie, playing herself.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ David Blowes, "Tracking Hexavalent Cr in Groundwater," Science 295: 2024 - 25 (Mar. 15, 2002).
  2. ^ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Factsheet on: CHROMIUM.
  3. ^ "Toxic award?" Science 310: 229 (Oct. 14, 2005).
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