Residents from Kings, Riverside and San Bernardino, California v Pacific Gas and Electric, Co.
PG&E To Pay $295M To Settle Water Contamination Lawsuits
After nearly a decade of legal disputes, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. agreed to pay $295 million to settle a series of lawsuits alleging the utility sickened hundreds of people by contaminating the water in three California counties. The settlement, affecting about 1,100 people in Kings, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, moves PG&E closer to resolving a bitter battle that resurrected claims from a similar case made famous in the movie, "Erin Brockovich."
The film, released six years ago, was based on the true story of a woman whose legal crusade ended with PG&E agreeing to a $333 million settlement.
About 100 to 150 people still haven't settled, said a PG&E spokesman.
The $295 million settlement revolves around lawsuits first filed in 1996 by some of the same attorneys involved in the Brockovich case. The complaints allege PG&E's operations exposed neighboring homes to water contaminated with chromium 6, a possible carcinogen, from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s. In announcing the settlement, PG&E acknowledged that some of its workers learned about the presence of chromium in the water wells during the 1960s, but didn't notify company management nor the affected communities. "Clearly, this situation should never have happened, and we are sorry that it did," PG&E said in a statement. "It is not the way we do business, and we believe it would not happen in our company today."
The settlement avoids a Los Angeles Superior Court trial that had been scheduled to begin April 24. The trial threatened to turn into a public relations nightmare for San Francisco-based PG&E, as well as saddle it with a court judgment that dwarfed the $295 million settlement. In the beginning, PG&E didn't envision paying $195 million. In 2001, PG&E had estimated its potential liability in the case at $160 million. The lawyers suing the utility had been seeking more than $500 million in damages.
Shortly after filing for Chapter 11 protection in 2001, PG&E unsuccessfully tried to persuade a judge to shift the suits from the state courts to a San Francisco federal court, where the utility's lawyers believed two-thirds of the claims would have been dismissed.
At the time, the attorneys opposing PG&E contended the utility was trying to use its bankruptcy case to stonewall hundreds of suffering people.
