The Unfinished Battle: What Erin Brockovich And PG&E’s Hinkley Cleanup Looks Like In 2025

The story of Erin Brockovich and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is one of the most iconic David-versus-Goliath environmental battles in American history, yet the fight for clean water in the small desert town of Hinkley, California, is far from over. As of late 2024 and early 2025, decades after the landmark $333 million settlement, PG&E continues its slow-moving, court-mandated process to remediate the toxic hexavalent chromium contamination.

The core issue remains the same: a massive underground plume of the cancer-causing chemical, known as Chromium-6 or Cr(VI), which PG&E knowingly dumped into unlined ponds from 1952 to 1966 at its Hinkley Compressor Station. The ongoing environmental crisis and the utility company's continued struggle to contain and clean the contamination highlight a persistent, disturbing legacy that Erin Brockovich, the tenacious former paralegal, continues to monitor and speak out against today.

Erin Brockovich: A Profile of the Environmental Crusader

Erin Brockovich is an American consumer advocate and environmental activist whose name became synonymous with corporate accountability after her tireless work brought down one of the nation’s largest utility companies. Her journey from single mother to global icon is a testament to the power of persistence and moral outrage.

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• Full Name: Erin L.E. Pattee (née Pattee)
• Born: June 22, 1960
• Birthplace: Lawrence, Kansas
• Education: Attended Wade College in Dallas, Texas.
• The Hinkley Case: In 1991, while working as a legal clerk for the law firm of Masry & Vititoe, Brockovich began investigating a cluster of illnesses in Hinkley, California. She discovered a link between the town’s water supply and PG&E’s operations.
• Legal Role: Though not an attorney, her exhaustive research and personal connection with the residents were instrumental in building the case of Anderson v. Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
• The Settlement: In 1996, the case resulted in the largest direct-action class-action lawsuit settlement in U.S. history at the time: $333 million for over 600 Hinkley residents.
• Current Role: She is a prominent environmental advocate, author, and speaker, running Brockovich Research & Consulting. She continues to fight for safe water and corporate accountability across the globe, often lending her voice to other major environmental contamination cases.

The Ongoing Hinkley Contamination: Decades Later, The Plume Persists

While the $333 million settlement provided financial justice for the victims, it did not magically erase the toxic pollution. More than 30 years after the initial discovery, the cleanup effort in Hinkley remains a massive, multi-faceted, and often controversial undertaking. The "Erin Brockovich chemical," Hexavalent Chromium (Cr(VI)), continues to pose a threat to the groundwater.

PG&E's Remediation Program Updates (2024–2025)

The cleanup is overseen by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, with PG&E responsible for the execution. The sheer scale of the contamination—a plume that has spread over several miles—makes the remediation process incredibly challenging and slow. Recent updates underscore the decades-long nature of this environmental catastrophe.

• The Cleanup Deadline: The Regional Water Board has given PG&E until 2032 to complete the remediation and bring the water's chemical content down to legal levels. This deadline is 36 years after the original settlement.
• Monitoring Well Installation: In October 2024, PG&E provided a work plan to install new monitoring wells. These wells are critical for characterizing the hexavalent chromium in the vadose zone (the unsaturated area above the groundwater) and in the groundwater near domestic wells.
• Plume Mapping: The public website for the Hinkley Groundwater Remediation Program continues to publish quarterly plume maps. The 4th Quarter 2024 Plume Map was scheduled for publication in early 2025. This data is used to track the movement and size of the contamination plume.
• Plume Migration Status: As of the 4th Quarter 2023 data, officials generally indicated that the plume migration was not occurring, but the data reflected natural fluctuations of the contamination. The challenge is not just stopping the spread but actively reducing the toxicity.
• Remediation Methods: PG&E employs various methods, including agricultural treatment units (ATUs) and in-situ injection of ethanol to convert the toxic Cr(VI) into the less harmful trivalent chromium (Cr(III)).

The fact that work plans and monitoring updates are still being issued in 2025 serves as a stark reminder that the Hinkley case is not a historical footnote but an active, ongoing environmental disaster. The residents who remain in the area continue to live with the legacy of the pollution.

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Why The Fight Continues: Erin Brockovich's Ongoing Advocacy

For Erin Brockovich, the Hinkley case was just the beginning of a lifelong commitment to consumer and environmental protection. She has consistently argued that the original settlement was a victory for holding a corporation accountable, but the slow pace of the cleanup, coupled with PG&E’s subsequent environmental and safety failures, shows a pattern of corporate negligence.

PG&E's Continued Controversies

PG&E has faced numerous other legal and public relations crises since the Hinkley settlement, reinforcing Brockovich's position that the company prioritizes profit over public safety. These controversies include:

• Wildfire Liability: PG&E’s aging equipment has been linked to several catastrophic wildfires in California, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which resulted in the company filing for bankruptcy in 2019 to manage billions of dollars in liability claims.
• Bankruptcy Protest: Brockovich has publicly protested PG&E's use of the bankruptcy process, arguing it was an attempt to shirk accountability for its liabilities and victims.
• New Environmental Concerns: Brockovich has also weighed in on other PG&E-related environmental issues, such as raising concerns about the decision to reopen the Moss Landing Battery Plant, demonstrating her continued vigilance over the company's operations.

The Broader Message of Hinkley

The Hinkley case and its decades-long cleanup struggle have become a symbol of a larger, systemic problem: how difficult it is to truly clean up toxic contamination once it enters a community's water supply. Brockovich often uses the case to galvanize action in other communities facing similar water crises, such as those involving PFAS "forever chemicals" or lead contamination.

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She emphasizes that the chemical Hexavalent Chromium, which she helped expose, was present long before her involvement, and the fight is about establishing a maximum contaminant level (MCL) that truly protects public health, not just one that is politically or economically convenient for corporations. The fact that the Hinkley cleanup is projected to continue until at least 2032—nearly 80 years after the dumping began—serves as a grave warning about the long-term consequences of corporate environmental negligence.

Erin Brockovich's legacy is not just the $333 million settlement, but the enduring spotlight she keeps on PG&E and the environmental justice movement. She ensures that even as the years pass, the residents of Hinkley, and the toxic plume beneath them, are not forgotten by the public or by the corporation responsible.