In this History episode we focus on the PG&E hexavalent chromium contamination of Hinkley, California — 370 million gallons of chromium-6 dumped into unlined ponds from 1952 to 1966, leaching into the groundwater that the town of Hinkley drank. PG&E knew about the contamination decades before the town did. Residents were told the chromium was harmless. Some were told it was nutritionally beneficial.
We trace the investigation by legal clerk Erin Brockovich, the 1996 settlement of $333 million — the largest direct-action lawsuit settlement in American history at the time — and the detail the film version missed: the settlement didn't clean up the town. By 2010, the chromium plume had spread to additional wells despite years of remediation. PG&E purchased and demolished approximately 130 homes near the contamination. Hinkley slowly became a ghost town. The EPA finalized a national maximum contaminant level for hexavalent chromium in drinking water in 2024 — more than 70 years after PG&E began dumping.
This podcast features narration with a synthetic AI voice.
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