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Open the original on waterboards.ca.govIn short the story, from waterboards.ca.gov
Hinkley, California, is a Mojave Desert town where chromium 6 from a Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) compressor station reached the groundwater. According to the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, PG&E used hexavalent chromium to fight corrosion in cooling tower water between 1952 and 1966; the wastewater went to unlined ponds, and some of it percolated to the groundwater. Source · waterboards.ca.gov
The board says the chromium affects an area of groundwater at least eight miles long and two miles wide, and PG&E remains under the board's cleanup orders.
PG&E reported chromium above the state drinking water standard to the state in late 1987, and the board issued its first cleanup order on December 29, 1987 (Lahontan Water Board, Order R6V-2015-0068). In 1996 a group of Hinkley residents won their case against PG&E with the help of Erin Brockovich, then a Los Angeles legal clerk (Grist, 2019). From 2011 the board required PG&E to supply bottled water, then whole-house water, to residents with chromium in their domestic wells. California's drinking water limit for chromium 6, 10 micrograms per liter, took effect on October 1, 2024 (State Water Resources Control Board), which says the hexavalent form has been shown to be carcinogenic. Source · waterboards.ca.gov
Brockovich has kept working on water. Her book Superman's Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It tells the stories of communities acting on their own water (Penguin Random House), and her Community Healthbook lets people post water, land and air concerns in their own area.
The read Glen’s take, in his words
Hinkley, California. A small town in the Mojave Desert. Between 1952 and 1966, Pacific Gas and Electric used hexavalent chromium, chromium 6, to fight corrosion in the cooling tower water at its compressor station. For years, wastewater went into unlined ponds. Some of it soaked down to the groundwater. Source · waterboards.ca.gov
In late 1987, PG&E reported chromium in that groundwater above California's drinking water standard. That December, the regional water board ordered a cleanup. Source · waterboards.ca.gov
I'm Glen Kerby, and this is where Erin Brockovich comes in. She was a legal clerk in Los Angeles. In her own words, she spearheaded a lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of people who had unknowingly been exposed to toxic waste. In 1996, a group of Hinkley residents won their case against PG&E with her help. Source · waterboards.ca.gov
The case ended. The water work didn't. In 2011, the water board ordered PG&E to supply bottled water, and later whole-house water, to residents with chromium in their wells. Today the board says the chromium affects groundwater at least eight miles long and two miles wide, and PG&E is still under its cleanup orders. In 2024, California set a drinking water limit for chromium 6 of ten parts per billion. Source · waterboards.ca.gov
Erin kept going. Her book, Superman's Not Coming, is about our national water crisis and what we the people can do about it. She tells stories like a water operator in Poughkeepsie, New York, who listened to his customers, and moms in Hannibal, Missouri, who filed an ordinance about their drinking water. And she built Community Healthbook, where people can post what they see in their own backyard.
What I take from her story is this. The people who drink the water often notice first. Her message is plain: if we're waiting for someone to save us, Superman isn't coming. That isn't hopeless. It's an invitation.
This is why we're making space for Erin Brockovich in the I Drink Living Water Research Library.
Questions answered from this page
What is this story about?
Hinkley, California, is a Mojave Desert town where chromium 6 from a Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) compressor station reached the groundwater. According to the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, PG&E used hexavalent chromium to fight corrosion in cooling tower water between 1952 and 1966; the wastewater went to unlined ponds, and some of it percolated to the groundwater.
Why did Glen Kerby choose this story?
I chose Erin Brockovich because her story didn't end with a court case, and neither did the water work in Hinkley. What I respect is how she keeps pointing back to the people who drink the water, because they often notice first. Her book says it plainly: Superman isn't coming.
Where can I read the original?
It was published by waterboards.ca.gov as “PG&E Hinkley Chromium Cleanup | Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board”, at https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/lahontan/water_issues/projects/pge/.
Go to the source their work, in full
“PG&E Hinkley Chromium Cleanup | Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board”
Published by waterboards.ca.gov. Read it where it was reported.
