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San Mateo County Times March 18, 2000  See Also San Mateo County Times, 3/14/00 San Mateo County Times, 1/27/00 San Mateo County Times, 1/26/00 San Mateo County Times, 1/20/00 San Mateo County Times, 1/5/00 San Mateo County Times, 12/14/99 For more information, contact:
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Activists: Film Parallels Midway By
Laura Linden SAN FRANCISCO -- Several Midway Village residents and environmental activists tried to heighten awareness of their cause on Friday by connecting it to the true story dramatized in the new film "Erin Brockovich." Passing out fliers in front of the AMC 1000 Van Ness theater, they told movie-goers that their fight at Midway Village and the true story in the movie have two common denominators: Pacific Gas & Electric and pollution-caused illness. "Erin Brockovich," starring Julia Roberts, is about a lawsuit that PG&E settled in 1996 for $333 million, on charges it poisoned a San Bernardino County farming community by releasing a highly toxic chemical into the water supply over several years and subsequently covered it up. Midway Village sits on land steeped with polynuclear aromatidc hydrocarbons, or PNAs, from an early 1900s gas plant owned by PG&E. The residents contend they are sick from the pollution, and that PG&E and government agencies have failed to properly clean it up. Awareness of Midway Village has been in the rise in recent months, and the residents capitalized on the movie's opening to gain wider exposure. "It's not enough to have the facts. It's not enough to have the truth," said Bradley Angel of Greenaction, an environmental watchdog group advocating for the residents of the low-income complex. "We need to embarrass and pressure (PG&E)." PG&E carefully downplays the film as an "entertainment vehicle" in which drama takes priority over fact. On Friday afternoon, a PG&E spokesman said that while the case in Southern California involved wrongdoing by the massive company, Midway Village does not. "There is no connection -- the two events are completely dissimilar," said spokesman John Tremayne. As opposed to the incident in San Bernardino County, Midway Village is a case where PG&E did not know about Midway Village's exposure to contaminants, Tremayne said. It was the U.S. Navy that in the 1940s used the polluted dirt as landfill in the area now occupied by Midway Village. PG&E, which operates a service center next to the complex, didn't know about the pollution until 1980 and later helped pay for a cleanup, Tremayne said. The residents assert the two cases share distinct similarities, however. While watching the film on Friday afternoon, they nodded in parts that felt familiar. Like the part when the residents of the town of Hinkley spoke of bloody noses, tumors and other illnesses. "It's exactly the same -- bloody noses. I had seven tumors," said resident Irma Anderson. "We could really relate to all of the pain and frustration," said Maria Downing-Laurence, who with her family has lived in Midway Village for 25 years. She pointed to her 17-year-old son, Aaron Laurence: "He still gets nose bleeds." I had one this morning," he said. Ladonna Williams, a former resident who is evolving into an environmental activist, said she could relate to the parts when Brockovich played amateur sleuth to uncover details in the case. "That happened to me," she said, speaking of times she has sought documents about Midway Village at the state Department of Toxic Substances Control in Sacramento. After the movie, they met up with Angel out front and helped him pass out fliers. "People are actually turning around and coming back (to pick up a flier). Many of them have heard of Midway Village," he said. "The timing of this movie is somewhat incredible.
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