Erin Brockovich in Fennville to talk water quality

FENNVILLE, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Families living with contaminated water are wondering if their tap-water will ever run clean again.

On Tuesday night, environmental activist and Hollywood name-sake Erin Brockovich hopes to make sure it does. Julia Roberts won an Oscar for portraying Brockovich in the film Erin Brockovich. She helped a California community win a $333 million settlement from an energy company that contaminated their water.

On Monday night, a member of Brockovich's team spoke to residents in Paw Paw, where for 23 years, the Coca-Cola plant sprayed wastewater into the soil, leaving those who live nearby with dangerous chemicals in their well water.

It is a similar situation in Fennville, where the Birds Eye plant is accused of spraying wastewater from its fruit processing operation, contaminating well water with arsenic, iron and manganese.

On Tuesday night, Erin Brockovich herself was at Fennville's elementary school for a community meeting and Newschannel 3 was there.

The Department of Environmental Quality says Birds Eye has been spraying untreated wastewater on its fields since the 1970's, and the hundreds of people who showed up for Tuesday's meeting have been dealing with that in one way or another for a long time now.

All eyes were on the lady of the hour when she entered Fennville Elementary, but will Erin Brockovich be able to bring movie magic to the real world problems the people of Fennville are facing? Brockovich and her people say they are looking into it.

"Behind us is where Birds Eye dumps their water," said Rose Ramirez. "There have been several people that have gotten sick, there have been several people that have gotten cancer; whether it's from the water we don't know."

"There's definitely an arsenic problem," said Brockovich, "so they have been looking at all the groundwater modeling."

Other known carcinogens, like manganese and iron, are also at levels above drinking water standards. The DEQ says it's the result of Birds Eye violating their wastewater permits and therefore breaking the law.

The DEQ says that Birds Eye has accepted responsibility for the problem, but in a statement to Newschannel 3, all Birds Eye would says is, "while we continue to investigate, we recognize that there are water quality issues that require a community wide response."

The DEQ also says that the water contamination is a result of carelessness on the part of Birds Eye, but it wans't done with knowledge or intent. Brockovich says that's irrelevant.

"Whether Birds Eye intended for this to happen or not, it's here and it has to be cleaned up, and these people have to be taken care of," said Brockovich.

Birds Eye says it has submitted a plan to the DEQ for a $3 million improvement to its water treatment system. As of Tuesday afternoon, the DEQ told Newschannel 3 that it hasn't seen those plans.

Brockovich and her entourage made it very clear to the people at Tuesday night's meeting that they should not expect miracles or million dollar settlements, but that they will be talking with them one on one to determine what step should be taken next.