Fox29 WFLX TV, West Palm Beach, Florida-Erin Brockovich's firm finds radiation in Acreage wells

Erin Brockovich's firm finds radiation in Acreage wells

By Al Pefley  email

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (WFLX) - Hundreds of people packed into the Palm Beach County Convention Center Thursday night  to hear Erin Brockovich speak.

The famous environmental activist told Acreage residents to drink bottled water immediately and that's not all.

Erin Brockovich was the subject of an Oscar-winning film in 2000, entitled "Erin Brockovich". Her efforts as a legal assistant working at a small law firm led to a $333 million settlement for the people in one rural town in California who had tainted drinking water.

At a meeting in West Palm Beach, Brockovich told hundreds of Acreage residents who are worried about a possible cancer cluster in their neighborhood that there's plenty of reason for them to be concerned.

She says she came here after getting a number of e-mails from mothers worried about their children who have developed brain tumors and cancers in the Acreage. "Every person's voice must be heard in this situation, and every single one of us must fight to find the answers and seek out the truth about what has happened." 

"Don't let others intimidate you because people will try to do that. You don't have to listen to the naysayers because they're going to be out there," she added.   

To have a celebrity here of Brockovich's stature, brings more attention than ever to residents' fears there is a cancer cluster involving adults and children living in a relatively small area who've developed brain tumors.

Her efforts to take on a water pollution case in California was the subject of a blockbuster film starring Julia Roberts as Brockovich.

She now works as a consultant for a law firm that revealed Thursday night that the latest round of testing in the Acreage shows radiation in every private well they sampled.

Brockovich told the crowd of several hundred at a town hall meeting that they should not give up and need to be in this for the long haul. It will be a "daunting task" she said as experts conduct tests and try to find the source of the radiation. "I am not here to create any kind of panic.

"We are concerned about some of the things we are seeing. We are concerned about radioactivity that is being found in the water wells," Brockovich said. 

One woman, who lives in the Acreage, says she has terminal cancer and it's uplifting to see Brockovich getting involved. "Well, there's definitely something in the water. It's not safe; it's not safe for my children," Carol Matthews, an Acreage resident told us after listening to Brockovich's remarks.

At one point, one of the organizers asked every one in the audience to raise their hand if they know someone in the Acreage with cancer. Dozens of hands shot up. 

The New York law firm that Brockovich, teamed up with Weitz & Luxenberg, says the time has come to seek legal help. They handed out contracts Thursday night hoping to get people to sign up for  legal representation.

More water testing of private wells in the Acreage, they say, is already being planned.