Erin Brockovich - Famous Contemporary Whistleblower

I admit that I never would have heard of her if someone hadn't made movie with Julia Roberts in the lead role. Pretty good movie. Pretty good story. Pulled key points from

Erin Brockovich-Ellis (born June 22, 1960) is an American legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) of California in 1993. 
The case alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium(VI), in the southern California town of Hinkley. At the center of the case was a facility called the Hinkley Compressor Station, part of a natural gas pipeline connecting to the San Francisco Bay Area and constructed in 1952. Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E used hexavalent chromium to fight corrosion in the cooling tower. The wastewater dissolved the hexavalent chromium from the cooling towers and was discharged to unlined ponds at the site. Some of the wastewater percolated into the groundwater, affecting an area near the plant approximately two miles long and nearly a mile wide.^[6] The case was settled in 1996 for US$333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in US history.

Wikipedia about Hinckley Groundwater Contamination: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinkley_groundwater_contamination
Wikipedia about her (not the movie): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Brockovich
Her official personal website: http://www.brockovich.com/index.html