Erin Brockovich tells IUS audience how she's still working for clean water

Dec. 2—NEW ALBANY — Erin Brockovich, an environmental activist who was central to winning a lawsuit against a major utility over groundwater contamination, on Tuesday spoke at Indiana University Southeast.

Brockovich became famous when her actions in the case against Pacific Gas & Electric were told in the 2000 movie "Erin Brockovich," which starred Julia Roberts.

Her speech at IUS' Sanders Speakers Series gave insight into her childhood struggles with dyslexia, time during the lawsuit and what she has been working on to make sure people across the nation have clean water.

"There's three pivotal people in my life that were preparing me for what was going to come," Brockovich said. "But I didn't know what was coming."

The first person that Brockovich talked about was her mother, Betty Jo O'Neal-Pattee. Her mom became a cheerleader for Brockovich.

"My mom's a journalist, which is where I get my snoopy inquisitive behavior," Brockovich said. "She was also a sociologist. She knew that if my self-esteem slid away, I would slide through the cracks."

Brockovich went on to say that every time she came home with another F on her report card, her mom would motivate her to keep on going and find her stick-to-itiveness.

Stick-to-itiveness means the propensity to follow through in a determined manner. The word became a theme for the presentation.

The second pivotal person was her psychology teacher. This teacher showed Brockovich the power of getting someone to think outside the box.

"The power of seeing that somebody's different and not putting that person in a box," Brockovich said. "That's the one thing that bothered me as a kid, I was in a box. None of us wants to be stuck in a box and labeled and judged."

Her psychology teacher got her out of the box and helped her with her dyslexia.

The last pivotal person in her life was her father. Brockovich said that he was a pipeline engineer and taught her about water.

"My dad, in a way, began to prepare me for a journey that would end up being about water," Brockovich said. "He taught me that water would become a commodity. Trading more valuable than oil or gold."

Brockovich went on to tell how she used all the lessons she learned from the three pivotal people in her life.

It was while organizing papers on a pro bono real estate case at the law firm Masry & Vititoe in California, that Brockovich first found medical records that would explode into the largest direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history. She got a job in the worker's compensation department, and one day when everyone was out for lunch, she found an archive box.

Brockovich's exhaustive investigation uncovered that Pacific Gas & Electric had been poisoning the small town of Hinkley's Water for over 30 years. PG&E had now been exposed for leaking toxic Chromium 6 into the groundwater. This poison affected the health of the population of Hinkley. In 1996, because of the lawsuit, spearheaded by Brockovich and Ed Masry, the utility giant was forced to pay out the largest toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history: $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.

The situation in Hinkley, Calif., taught Brockovich a few lessons that she says everyone needs to know.

"We have to show up and you don't have to be anyone else other than you," Brockovich said. "Make those observations, feel what's going on around you, don't look for somebody else to figure it out for you or to fix it for you, rather look at yourself. We are often the answer."

Brockovich went on to show what project she has been working on lately. She had a book come out in April 2021 titled "Superman's not Coming." The book is about the national water crisis and what people can do about it.

She also started a community health book for water quality across the United States. On the website people can report bad quality of water, land, air and other environmental areas that will negatively affect residents.

"As daunting as this is and some of the things I've said feel overwhelming, but we're in a really great turning point," Brockovich said.

As president of Brockovich Research & Consulting, she is currently involved in numerous environmental projects worldwide. She has requests for her help in groundwater contamination complaints in every state of the U.S., Australia, and other international hot spots. She is currently working on cases in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri.