CHAPTER 1: MOVIE PLOT SUMMARY

Erin Brockovich, a once crowned beauty queen in her younger days, faces a large
responsibility to take care of her three children following her second divorce. A car accident then
later leads her to Ed Masry who owns a small California law firm (Masry & Vititoe). After the case
was closed with it not siding her, she then persuaded Ed Masry to hire her in which, with
perseverance, was granted. Fulfilling her job as an assistant, she came across a pile of documents
with suspicious medical records. With her boss’s permission to let her investigate the case in
Hinkley, Erin came across a big successful company, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) that leads her to
the regional water board and finally knowing about a toxic substance called Chromium (VI).
Proceeding with their findings, Ed and Erin suspected that the Cr (VI) used by PG&E to prevent
corrosion in their cooling towers might be the one that contaminated the groundwater in the
community that caused various illnesses and diseases which is true. Time-consuming as it is, the
community naturally bonded with Erin that motivated her more, even sacrificing some of her family
time, to seek justice. With all the challenges that Erin and Ed went through which paired with the
threat from PG&E trying to cover up their misdoings, they were finally joined by 634 plaintiffs in the
community together with the help of a lawyer named Kurt Potter. Justice was served and finally the
judge in charge ruled out that PG&E Company will be paying the plaintiffs a sum of 333 million
dollars which brought a great relief on them. The case was very remarkable that it brought the
Masry & Vititoe law firm to a greater state and Erin to have a bonus of 2 million dollars.
 CHAPTER 2: REACTIONS ON MOVIE KEYPOINTS
KEYPOINT 1: Burying important information from the community that involves them and just
easily propose to buying their land to cover up inadequate practices just because
they own a multi-billion company.

REACTION: In our different endeavors, there is what we call ethics. Even engineering has its code of
ethics. But even if we enumerate all the codes of ethics and whether it is related to
business or engineering or science, all it gives us is to develop our moral intelligence
which helps us comprehend right and wrong and to behave in the way we believe is
right – in which, in the movie, was not observed in the company’s side. Considering
the time this happened, they may not have the best technology in treating wastewater,
but at least before they proceed in using such toxic substance, they should’ve properly
researched on how to at least lower the concentration to an acceptable one. The case
wouldn’t have to be put in many complications and conflicts if they didn’t add their
pride and abuse of power. Also, to mention the things they do like paying the doctors
not to inform their patients properly regarding the cause of their illness, to stay silent
even if they know everything, and deliver threats to those who oppose them. It is
rather depressing to know that innocent people who are passionately working on the
site are thinking that they work in such a respectable company only to be dragged
down by them later on. Workers in the plant site like scientists, researchers,
engineers, and people who should care about human safety and environment safety
considering the works they do – whether they’re innocent or an accomplice to the
crime – must have felt guilty.

KEYPOINT 2: Erin Brockovich going her way inside PG&E plant site to collect samples for her to
investigate further about the case.

REACTION: In the movie, it was comedic how Erin Brockovich snuck into the plant site to get
samples for investigation. But, in the scenes, she could’ve worn gloves or used tongs
to get the samples instead of using bare hands, since it’s possible that the sample
source is toxic. I also think that if she was caught before she even went to her car, she
would’ve been sued for trespassing, but luckily, she’s saved.

In our environmental engineering course, we also do things like gathering of samples.

For our laboratory experiment on water, for example, first is we visit the site (called
ocular visit) where we will collect the samples and find ways to how we can get them.
This is a very important practice since it helps us set precautions to avoid accidents
and it will also save us time studying the place when going to the second step where
we will now collect the sample. And of course, after the gathering of the sample, we
then proceed to the experimentation.

KEYPOINT 3: Update on PG&E and Hinkley: Some of Hinkley residents may have been given lot of
money due to the case of Chromium (VI) back from years ago, but the place is still
not guaranteed as safe up to this day.

REACTION: A popular name for Hinkley until now is The Erin Brockovich Town after residents won
the case against PG&E. Still, given the high concentration and amount of Chromium
VI that seeped into the ground leading to the local community’s groundwater, it is not
surprising that living there would not be safe. According to PG&E spokesperson, Jeff
Smith, PG&E bought around 196 homes. But the program of purchasing homes was
ended in the early months of 2015. Additionally, most homes that were brought were
the places that were highly contaminated. According to Barbara Ray, a resident in
Hinkley, most people sold their houses in panic. Even with the cleanups that were
made, hexavalent chromium’s threat will not go away. The place is not completely
abandoned, but it still turned out almost like a ghost town.

A feasibility study by PG&E in 2014 says that the removal of all chromium in the most
contaminated area could take from 11 to 50 years. A Cleanup and Abatement Order
was ordered by the local Lahontan Water Board to PG&E in 2015 which layouts that
in 2032, completed cleanup is at about 80%. But neither residents nor people from
outside the place believed the company to complete any cleanup and no one dared
mention it.

Back at Hinkley, residents who still stay in the area and people who support the place
still hopes for the town to be better and have a comeback given that technology is
helping them to eliminate the contaminants present. Some Interviews from previous
residents hope that the fears in the place will soon disappear and go back to its
original lovely aura. How saddening it is to listen to Hinkley’s people whose lives were
almost completely ruined just because of improper practices that were too late to be
corrected.

On January 29, 2019, PG&E files bankruptcy after the California Wildfires which
caused a lot of death and property damages. It is also suspected that the wildfires
have something to do with the equipment used in PG&E. They are still being fined
with billions of dollars until now because of the California Wildfires.