The town of Hinkley, California, located in the Mojave Desert, had its groundwater contaminated with hexavalent chromium starting in 1952, resulting in a legal case against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1996. The legal case was dramatized in the film Erin Brockovich, released in 2000.
PG&E operates a compressor station in Hinkley for natural gas transmission pipelines. The natural gas has to be re-compressed approximately every , and the station uses large cooling towers to cool the gas after it has been compressed.
[http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb6/water_issues/projects/pge/index.shtml Between 1952 and 1966], the water used in these cooling towers contained hexavalent chromium – now recognized as a carcinogen – to prevent rust in the machinery. The water was stored between uses in unlined ponds, which allowed it to percolate into the groundwater.  This severely contaminated the groundwater, affecting soil and contaminating water wells near the compressor station, with a plume  approximately  long and nearly  wide.