Erin Brockovich keeps

By Kelly Yates
Ms Brockovich, an environmental activist, made a stop at Kambrya College on Friday after receiving a heartfelt email from teacher Anne Kyprianos asking her to visit the school if she was ever in Melbourne.
“I wanted the students to learn from her, which is more than a textbook could ever teach,” Ms Kyprianos said.
The teacher said she was shocked when she received the return email from Ms Brockovich.
“At first I thought it was a joke but I hadn’t told anyone that I was planning to email her so I knew it was legitimate,” she said.
Ms Brockovich gave an inspirational talk while at the Bemersyde Drive school about her life and investigations which inspired the hit movie ‘Erin Brockovich’, starring Julia Roberts.
She said the movie highlighted her legal triumph and personal challenges.
An important message Ms Brockovich wanted to get across the students was to listen to their gut instinct.
“You need to listen and believe in yourself,” she said.
For Ms Brockovich, that was one of the key elements that led to the success of the Hinkley case that was settled in 1996 for $333 million.
The case alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium in the California town of Hinkley.
According to Ms Brockovich, the hexavalent chromium leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Compressor Station. “The people there were experiencing nose bleeds and the wildlife and trees were dying,” she said.
“The system was telling me the story and I had to follow it because it was the right thing to do.”
Ms Brockovich said of the 634 plaintiffs in the Hinkley case, 54 had died, some due to natural causes.
She said the world needed to practise prevention rather than rescue.
“Common sense is a great tool that we all have yet we seem to be taught not use it,” she said.
Student Tara Dowler performed a song she had written for Ms Brockovich called ‘Once a Dreamer.’