Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 26, 2004 12:00 AM

Surprise! Erin Brockovich's favorite movie is not Erin Brockovich.

It's Pay It Forward, a film based on the concept of doing good deeds for people and encouraging them to extend the gesture to others.

People underestimate their ability to do good things because they lack self-confidence, said Brockovich, sounding more like a motivational coach than the environmental champion she is most recognized as in popular culture.

Brockovich will be in town Dec. 10 to speak to Valley Forward, an environmentally oriented business group.

In a telephone interview, she said individuals need to realize that they can take on environmental polluters and hold them accountable, even though it might not result in a Hollywood film starring Julia Roberts to lionize their accomplishments.

It takes doggedness, Brockovich said.

"I didn't have the training or the degree to do that," Brockovich said.

"But I was persistent, I was determined."

Brockovich's work as an environmental investigator led to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. paying a $333 million settlement to residents of Hinkley, Calif. People there had sued the utility, alleging health problems from the chemical chromium 6, which had leaked into the local groundwater from a PG&E operation.

Brockovich said that despite the daunting technical documents and science that surrounded the case, she kept up her investigation because things weren't adding up.

And that holds another valuable lesson, she said: Listen to your common sense.

Brockovich said people drown out their common sense, when it's one of the best tools they have to guide them through life.

Aside from the notoriety the PG&E case brought, Brockovich said her life has been transformed in other ways by her experience with environmental investigations.

"I'm clearly more aware," she said. "Some of the stuff in food is really gross. But I do read labels."

And her water source?

"I usually drink bottled water," she said. "I've been in places where I can smell the water."

Acknowledging the controversy over bottled water not subject to the same health standards as tap water, Brockovich said she has been tempted to do her own study of various bottled-water suppliers.

Brockovich now is director of research at Masry and Vititoe, the Los Angeles-area law firm where she was hired more than a decade ago as a file clerk.

But for all her success with litigation, she said she has never felt the urge to become an attorney herself.

"A lot of them do great things to help people who might otherwise get trampled on," Brockovich said of lawyers.

"But they're in court all day. . . . That's not my thing. I prefer to stay where I'm at. Plus, I'm a real people person."