SAN DIEGO -- Attorney Erin Brockovich will be investigating the allegations of a toxic plume of groundwater in an El Cajon neighborhood, according to a post on her Facebook page.
El Cajon residents say the plume is making the people living in the Starlight Mobile Home park sick. The mobile home park sits above the plume.
“We moved in November of last year, but we became so ill, summer gets worse." resident Stephanie Jordan said. "The hotter it gets, the more fumes you get."
Until just a few months ago, Jordan had no idea she was living over a plume of toxic groundwater.
According to the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, the groundwater has been polluted with cancer-causing chemicals for decades and can emit toxins into the air above via toxic vapors.
Two of the toxic chemicals present in the vapors are trichloroethylene, also known as TCE, and Tetrachloroethlene, known as PCE.
The toxins were dumped in the ground decades ago by Ametek, a company that used to occupy an adjacent building, according to the RWQCB.
“I’d be getting a bad headache, and I’d look over and he was passed out,” Jordan said, standing in her empty former home. She and Ike Bruckmann moved out because they became ill and no longer trusted their home.
Jordan said four days after she left, their health was already improving.
Dozens of worried residents living over the toxic groundwater packed into the auditorium at Magnolia Elementary School Wednesday night.
“The water board has never believed the vapor from the plume was posing a threat to the mobile home parks,” a water board representative told the crowd.
But Jordan says they are wrong.
“They make statements that the parks are safe when they haven’t tested it,” Jordan said.
She took it upon herself to call celebrity consumer advocate Erin Brockovich for help, and she received a response.
Brockovich’s assistant called her back, interested in the case.
10News has reached out to Brockovich's assistant. We are waiting to find out what their next steps are.
