CA Utility to Buy Polluted Homes

Before anyone starts selling, they should probably get Erin Brockovich on the case. Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company responsible for contaminating groundwater in Hinkley, Calofornia, has offered to buy 100 homes near the cancer-causing groundwater plume, which is tainted with toxic hexavalent chromium. Litigation against the company over the groundwater pollution formed the premise of Julia Roberts-starring film Erin Brockovich, about the dogged researcher credited with bringing the company to justice (PG&E paid $333 million to 660 residents in 1997). Reactions to the plan were mixed in the depressed farming community where the homes are located.