The environmental activist who won $333 million for hundreds of people affected by utility company PG&E’s groundwater contamination is now turning her focus to data centers.
Portrayed by Julia Roberts in a 2000 film that shares her name, Erin Brockovich is most well-known for the millions she secured for residents of Hinkley, Calif., in the largest direct-action lawsuit in history. Following that case, Brockovich has gone on to write several books on environmental issues and has continued to advocate for victims of environmental damage across the country.
“The single most common concern—more than noise, more than water usage, more than rising utility bills—is the one word that keeps appearing in submission after submission: transparency,” she wrote.
Her website, brockovichdatacenter.com, is compiling complaints from across the U.S. to create an interactive map of data center projects that have been proposed, are under construction, or are operational. While the map isn’t exhaustive, she has received nearly 4,000 reports from people about data center developments in their communities in nearly all 50 states.
“Nobody told us anything,” she told the outlet. “They supposedly had a big meeting. The whole community was supposed to come. Nobody knew anything about it. Ever.”
Brockovich noted that companies seeking to build data centers need to make sure that local residents are informed ahead of time, not after the fact.
“Transparency means notifying residents before decisions are made, not after. It means public hearings with real, complete information about energy consumption, water use, noise levels, and effects on local infrastructure,” wrote Brockovich on Substack. “It means elected officials who answer to their constituents first, not to the corporations seeking tax breaks and zoning variances.”
