Hinkley Water & Erin Brockovich - Town of Poison

Norma Jean's Sun, Memoir by Kris Courtney

While many of the more than 600 original Hinkley litigants moved away from the town after the 1996 settlement, Walker stayed. She preferred the remote desert landscape to a city skyline.

Now, Walker and Brockovich are struggling to understand how this could be happening all over again.

"When I first met Roberta back in 1991 and 1992, she said PG&E is buying property, handing out bottled water and my horse just died," she said. "This year she called and said they're buying property, handing out bottled water and my horse just died.

"Eerie doesn't describe it," she said. "It was out of body — it was like the 20 years never happened."

In 2008, the plume of chromium began spreading. Despite efforts by PG&E to stem the problem, tests this year showed it was growing again. According the utility and water board, the plume is two miles long and a mile wide.