Lillie Stone stands in her backyard where levels of hexavalent chromium have risen over 700% over the past three years. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Russell Burns lights up a cigarette in his car outside the Our Place bar. In 1997, PG&E paid 660 Hinkley residents $333 million to settle lawsuits alleging injuries including intestinal tumors and breast cancer from chromium-laced waste water that had seeped from the utility’s disposal ponds between 1951 and 1966, winding its way into the community’s drinking wells. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Tom Ownes, a Hinkley resident, speaks with others at the Our Place bar, where Erin Brokovich started the case and lawsuit against PG&E. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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An empty house sits in the path of the plume of chromium-tainted groundwater north of the PG&E plant in Hinkley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Lillie Stone sits in the living room of her home. She and her husband live on fixed incomes and want PG&E to buy their property at a reasonable price, or pay to help them relocate. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
