Erin Brockovich, the American environmental activist who helped Californians win a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a big power company, is supporting residents of an Australian town in what she believes may be a similar case. Ms Brockovich is working with an Australian law firm on a possible class action against Alcoa, an international mining giant. The inhabitants of Yarloop, a small community south of Perth, suffer from a range of health problems that they attribute to emissions from an Alcoa bauxite refinery.

Speaking in Perth yesterday, Ms Brockovich - whose US crusade was made into a film starring Julia Roberts - said she was struck by similarities between the California case and Yarloop. She was so concerned about the health risks that she declined to visit the West Australian town. "I have no intention of going anywhere near a facility which is leaking contaminants and could be lethal for me," she told The West newspaper. A resident alerted the American to Yarloop's plight via email. Since then, about 200 people living near the Wagerup refinery have told her about problems including respiratory issues, skin irritations, sore throats and eyes, extreme fatigue, mental dysfunction, stomach upsets, chronic blood noses, cancer and organ failure.

Ms Brockovich became famous in the 1990s after taking on the power company, Pacific Gas, which was accused of polluting the water supply in the small town of Hinkley. She won $333m - the biggest settlement in US history - for residents, many of whom had become terminally ill, after she uncovered a conspiracy involving contaminated water. The Hollywood film Erin Brockovich won Roberts an Oscar. In Yarloop, and other small communities near the refinery, people have complained for a decade about medical problems. Vince Puccio, chairman of a Yarloop residents' action group, said yesterday that the population had dropped from 874 in 2001 to 546 last year, with many "forced to leave for the sake of their health". He said: "Our close-knit rural community is being destroyed, and we want this addressed."

A Queensland firm with which Ms Brockovich is connected, Shine Lawyers, has taken the case on a no-win, no-fee basis. A partner with the firm, Simon Morrison, was confident Yarloop residents had a good case. "It's far too early to start talking dollars," he said. "What we do know is, something has gone terribly wrong." Ms Brockovich told Australian Associated Press: "We think we live in a big world, but it's really smaller than you think. Somebody from the area that was sick, from what they believed to be Alcoa, emailed me. I was intrigued with her illnesses ... and recommended one of our toxicologists see her. After he did some testing and researching, he said, 'this is something you should look into'."

Shine Lawyers may also sue the West Australia state government for allowing the refinery to expand and double its production despite a history of health complaints in the area. Residents claim they are being poisoned by the fumes from Wagerup's stacks and the red dust in its stockpiles of waste. Alcoa of Australia denied yesterday that its operations posed any health risks. It said that the refinery had been the subject of many independent studies, and had been deemed safe for employees and nearby communities. "Wagerup refinery meets the most stringent health and environmental standards in the world and will continue to do so when expanded," it said.
(By Kathy Marks, The Independent, 07/08/2007)