Brockovich's town in battle over sewage

Erin Brockovich
Still battling ... Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich
Ten years ago, the small desert town of Hinkley near Los Angeles became famous when a glamorous lawyer named Erin Brockovich won a $250m settlement against an energy company accused of poisoning the town's water.

Now Hinkley faces a new threat, and the locals are hoping that Ms Brockovich will once again come to their rescue.

A sewerage company wants to build a 160-acre composting plant eight miles from the town. But some of the 1,900 residents of Hinkley say the plant will increase traffic, air pollution and noxious odours and release methane gas, which contributes to global warming.

They point to the company's last plant in the nearby town of Adelanto, where the company agreed to shut down its operation after allegations that schoolchildren had suffered from vomiting and respiratory illnesses. A local school headteacher told a court that the windows and doors of his primary school were covered in a "black mass of thousands of flies" because of the sewage plant.

After suffering the effects of chromium poisoning caused by waste water from an energy facility run by the utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric, the citizens of Hinkley feel they are being singled out.

Residents are hoping that Ms Brockovich, who was portrayed by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film bearing her name, will take up the fight against the sewage plant.

"The whole community didn't do anything for months because they thought she was going to ride in on her white horse," local resident Norman Diaz told the paper. "But I talked to her office and got a response saying she wasn't interested. She's fighting other battles."

Ms Brockovich, however, said she would look into the matter. "This is a community that is near and dear to my heart," she said. "I'm with them on their concerns. I don't know that I'd want it either."