I suppose we have Julia Roberts to thank for the fact that the name Erin Brokovich is known the world over. The movie, released in 2000, saw Julia nab an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role and has since grossed over $125 million at the box office.

Now you may also remember the name Hinkley, which was the small town whose water supply came to be riddled with toxins thanks to the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) company opening operations there. Brokovich managed to fight the bad guys and earned a settlement of $333 million for the residents, which was at the time the largest out-of-court settlement in US history.

Happy ending then? Alas, once the cameras stop rolling the world tends to forget. Big business, on the other hand, not so much. Here’s Vice:

…in November of 2010, PG&E publicly offered to just straight-up buy a huge amount of property in certain contaminated areas…

A growing number of residents have accepted offers in the past few years, and local business has really started to suffer. After all, PG&E isn’t turning all that land into brand new condominiums. It looks like they’re just knocking down the houses and saying goodbye to a big headache.

Now of course as these properties empty out so the town’s population dwindles, the knock-on effects of which have slowly brought the town of Hinkley to its knees:

[Businesses have] lost 60-80 percent of business revenue since the town’s water issues began. Enrollment in Hinkley Elementary School shrank so completely that it closed altogether in 2013. Hinkley’s post office also closed earlier this year. Now the only place to buy groceries and gas in Hinkley has announced that it’s closing too.

Looks like we have a ghost town in the making. It may be a case of too little too late but perhaps we need a sequel to save the day…

[source:vice]