Legal-clerk-turned-activist Erin Brockovich spoke to a crowd of a little more than 1,000 people last night at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium about the power of choice, the importance of morality and the ability to overcome adversity.
The event was part of the Kennedy Lecture Series and admission was free.
While working for the law firm of Masry & Vititoe as a file clerk in 1991, Brockovich discovered that the health of hundreds of citizens of Hinkley, Calif., had been compromised by exposure to toxic chromium-6. The chromium leaked into the town’s groundwater supply from a nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Company plant.
Brockovich teamed up with the firm’s principal, Ed Masry, and filed a direct action lawsuit against the company, which resulted in the company awarding $333 million to 600 Hinkley residents. Her story was transformed into the film Erin Brockovich in 2000.
Brockovich said last night that Julia Roberts’ portrayal of her in the movie was accurate, right down to her character’s potty mouth and revealing wardrobe. But she added that her cursing is worse and her skirts were shorter in real life.
Brockovich has used her fame to give speeches around the world, and last night urged those in the audience to recognize the importance of making their own choices and how those choices can have an impact on outcomes.
“I hope to be your mirror … what I hope you see in that mirror is a reflection of certain values, certain ideas and even a few revelations all based on one concept — the notion of choice,” she said.
Brockovich also stressed the “victory of morality” and stated that the reason PG&E lost its cases was because it was on the wrong side of a higher moral issue.
Brockovich recently settled a second lawsuit against PG&E for $335 million. This lawsuit also involved the contamination of groundwater by chromium-6 but in a different location.
She currently is working on a case involving 400 former students of Beverly Hills High School who developed cancer. The school has 18 oil well heads built underneath its athletic field and a large power plant located next to it.
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