The town of Hinkley, California, made famous by the 2000 movie, “Erin Brockovich,” is in the news once again as water regulators revealed last week that high levels of cancer-causing hexavalent chromium have been found in the past year in groundwater more than a half-mile beyond the previous extent of contamination in the San Bernardino County farming community.
The contamination was first publicized during a 1996 case brought to court by Erin Brockovich, a paralegal fighting for sickened residents. PG&E settled with more than 600 Hinkley residents for $333 million. Many sick residents blamed the contaminated water for their crippling health problems that included Hodgkin’s disease and breast cancer.
Lauri Kemper, assistant executive officer of the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control board said “Because of the widespread nature of the lower concentration chromium, it’s difficult to capture the contamination.”
Tests this past March showed that the contamination was growing again, and it is now more than two miles long and a mile wide. The contamination continues despite a long-standing order for PG&E to clean up the mess, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
On Monday the water board ordered PG&E to do additional groundwater monitoring at a site near Hinkley, about 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Current chromium levels near Hinkley remain low enough not to violate current drinking water standards. But some studies have shown that long-term exposure to even low levels of the compound can contribute to health problems.
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