tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight the conversation with erin brockovich who inspired the film of features her name. talking about one of the biggest challenges, our water supply. the film makes the point that both political parties in washington are not doing enough to address the issue of water and its impact on critical issues like public health. we're glad you can join us. a conversation with erin brockovich coming up right now. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tavis: erin brockovich is a long time and our mental and clean water advocate who inspired the film featuring julia roberts. the film is playing in select cities. here is a scene from "last call at theasis." >> every single state has e-mail me with some sort of problem. 25,000 inquiries in one month, to the point where i have started to create a map and what is staring us is we still have

700 more entries to input so we're able to start connecting the dots to get some kind of -- there is some money accounts -- so many accounts of contamination. >> you have a fish kill here. we have lost over 1 billion fish. there were buried on the beach with bulldozers. >> we would take a glass of water and it would smell like diesel fuel. my life is over without my water. >> six of our neighbors have had brain tumors and half of them died. it was like, it is in the water. we have to get the kids out of here, we have to do something. >> i cannot just talk to you because it makes me think what is going on in arizona and alabama and washington and texas, because it is happening everywhere. tavis: we obviously did not plan

this, i did not buy you have worked on the set days ago. you were at one of the superfund sites in this extreme heat. i was in north carolina with 105 degree temperatures every day. the conversation with this heat wave could be more -- could not be more auspicious. >> sometimes -- most of the time we can take water for granted that it is always there, especially in a heatwave. that is something we gravitate to for everything. sprinklers, swimming, a cooling off, putting out the fires. tavis: how baht -- how bad is the water crisis? ande're in a water crisis it can be a daunting look at the situation we're in with the misuse, the lack of, the overuse, and the pollution of our water in the united states.

we do not think it is us. but like i said in the film, it already is you. it can see these scenarios played themselves out in other countries and we always go there to aid in rescue what we have that same problem right here. as in the film, they show the impending crisis that could be coming to california. it is hard to watch but there is also hope for us. there are things that we can be doing from how we use our water to the pollution of our water to creating new ways to clean the water, to disposing of waste properly. that could be the game changer if we could only wake up and become aware that the situation is happening. >> we will talk about solutions but since we live in california and this is not just a california crisis but to your word, it is impending here in california. what are we up against specifically? >> pollution for one of them. what people do not understand is

when water gets polluted, it is an offer. there is a fascinating world that exists underneath our feet that we do not see, therefore we do not relate. i am very visual and i need to see things to understand it. when pollution hits, think about when you flush the toilet or you randomly turn on your sink. where does the water go? it spreads out and the same thing happens when there is pollution credit spreads out and it can get carried on for miles and end up in the municipal system, a kid and of in private wells and we have -- it can wind up in private wells. a large number of it for agricultural use. oftentimes they do not know that the pollution is there. and the misuse of water. for everyone of us. letting the water run in your sink to unnecessarily watering your lawn too often or outside, hosing down the deck and you drop the fought -- hose and go

inside. we need to figure out better and more effective ways to use water and we will need that. wells are running dry and we have issues with fracking. it takes millions of gallons of water to frack one well. tavis: this is the difficult question and you do this every day so this is not foreign to you. i wonder how people get the message, myself included, how do we get the message about the crisis so long as you flush your toilet it works and you go to your faucet, do they have to go through it? that is true of everything. how do you get traction on an issue like this so long as everybody goes to the faucet and turns it on and it works? >> i hope by doing things that

we're doing today and talking about it to films like "last call at the oasis" to the work am doing from going to universities and lecturing to students, there is a real generation up-and-coming that is very well aware of this impending crisis. tavis: you think so? what is making them so more aware than you or me? >> i think the stories they watch, for one. the social world has opened a sub. i am amazed and i can tell you how hopeful i am. i see communities contacting me all day long. i get anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 e-mails a month. i have 100,000 checking in from my side coming from 24 countries and territories. they are reporting things they see going on in their community and at the university level they're out there studying it, they are seeing it, they're learning about pollution and fracking and they want to get

into science. they want to get into technology. their little minds are generating ways to using waste and using and preserving our water. the awareness -- on the social awareness, they can see more. this is a crisis that will affect you indicted tomorrow and the next five years. what really stunned me was the -- a few weeks ago. my baby in the film "erin brockovich" having a baby. my first grandbaby. i look and think, i am going to be holding the next generation and that is the one to get in trouble. you have to see the forest through the trees sometimes and realize here in the united states, there are people in parts of texas who are turning on their water and they're well

is dry. that is what makes it real for us. we need to have that compassion. take a look at history. so many things we said were coming, we did not want to believe it, and they came. we need to be prepared in take preventive measures and be prepared. what is the worst that will happen for someone? i take it for granted i will turn on the water and it will be there but i know more. to be there for parents went at happens. and we have to realize, i would think in california because of an earthquake, if we have a major earthquake, you know our water supply is going to be interrupted. just coming back from the east coast, some of the storms, they prevented some people who were under water orders. may not have had water roared -- momentarily. had to be shut down for a day. when it hits home for you, then it becomes real. tavis: this is a broad question.

i do not want to -- i want to give you room to paint however you want to. with regard to your answer here but what are the politics on this? i am asking a broad question because -- you have been death on the epa and legitimately so in a lot of ways. i'm not talking about obama or romney. in washington. you mentioned global warming for second. the debate in washington about those who believe and those who do not believe, in water is the same way. some people think it is a crisis and others think it is the imagination. like social security. the american people oftentimes do not know whether to go left or right, what to believe or not to believe. based on the fact that our leaders in washington, the politics on this stuff is so strange. what are the politics on this water crisis? >> funny you should ask that. i went to washington and i

thought i was going to pull my hair out. i saw the bickering and i am like, i do not know how we get anything done. first of all, i am truly disappointed with the environmental protection agency. this is an agency that is supposed to be oversight, we believe as people that superman is going to come rescue us and that is the first thing that people need to do. politics for me has no place here. this is a human rights issue. politics does not play with people that way. that is what we need to make it. because it is going to be all of our crisis. i think that there is a lot of things that could be done and the first thing i work with communities on is to leave the politics out and here is why they can do that. they're now affected. what they see is what they believe. they have to take measures no matter what politics are going to do at this moment. begin to save their own house

and their own family and that is what is important to them. i am out in communities all day long throughout the united states of america. the frogs turning into hermaphrodites. they see green water. i did not grow in an era wre we thought that was acceptable. these people at a community level are starting to act and leave politics aside. whether they create their own water,, whether they create collectively and get to an agency that forces filtration systems on their well head, they're starting to mobilize and they will be the ones if you ask me that will make a difference. the politics is absolutely frightening. i think it needs to be left out of this. this is a water issue. this is a human rights issue. this is our issue.

it will be up to us to do something. tavis: what is the essence of your beef with the epa? too big a question? >> i have to mind my matters when we talk about this. it is frustrating for me. i felt this agency was in place to protect us and over the past 20 years and all the communities i have been in, there are absent. i believe for a host of reasons, they are overstaffed and understaffed and their under burden. they are flat out broke. these agencies when they do get their come in and initiate for a cleanup because what they're going to do is see the defendant any way for a cleanup. because it has gotten so big so fast, they cannot even get in and clean up most of the sites we have. there is any or estimated between 15 to 30,000 superfund

sites that exist today that we are not cleaning up. i am involved in cases where the epa is involved and they were a little too late. they showed up 30 years later. i came back from minnesota. on the number one superfund site. nobody in the community knew. i do not know where the ball has been dropped. it is insanity. it is inexcusable. it is an agency that is not doing their job. they have terrible networking. they do not talk with other agencies like the center for disease control or the agency for toxic disease registry. they cannot communicate effectively with the state and the number one thing that bothers me is, it is not their job, they say. you tell me who's job it is. when you have a population of people living on top of a superfund site and you know that they are ingesting it and you know that they are -- there is soiled paper -- soil vapor in

their home, and you do not check on their welfare, whose job is that? that is one thing i started doing with the help of google. we are treating the people reporting registry where these communities on the superfund sites can get to me and began to report what is happening networ. they do not with their health and it is startling what we're starting to see. as i said to you earlier, drinking green water, frogs turning into hermaphrodites is not acceptable. or we get hung up is when a community and people, those with cancer, we have 59 people with khalil blast, -- glioblastoma brain tumors. there are thousands of them. 4000 on my map today. yet no agency wants to look at it because the politics get

involved. what i am concerned about is if the agencies are going to be like that, let's just say. maybe we should not have this agency. maybe we had better create another one that would provide that oversight so we can get better, so we can get information, so maybe we can help people and maybe we can clean up the water. as long as politics come into play, we're going nowhere. it drives me crazy. in the case we are involved with -- we know how dangerous lead is to children and there is a huge defended out there that instead of thedisposing of their lead, they leave it all over town and the kids are playing in them. we were taking photos of the children and as they waved, their hands were great from lead -- gray from lead

underneath. what generation will that be? last i checked the thought was -- i thought i was in the united states of america. i felt like i was in the third world. we will run to every country's eeghen right now because we do not see what is happening in missouri, i do because we do not see what is happening in texas, i do. we will have to come back home and start aiding our cells. rebuilding infrastructure. most of them have contaminated water. we can rebuild the systems. we could be putting more science and technology to work and teaching our children how doeto dispose of this waste. we could clean up the mess we have made. we tell our to-year-old clean up your room but we do not do this. tavis: i am asking to get your sense of this.

jamie dimon showed up in washington and will watched on television -- we all watched on television the way he was handled with care and with kid gloves and the relationship between politicians, the relationships between government and big business is well documented. calvin coolidge said the business of america is business. some could argue that america was a corporation before it was a country, that is my diatribe. just to be issued -- raced around politics and money, how much of the fact that the epa is not stepping up in the way that you think they should has to do with the cozy relationship between the epa and business? they're supposed to be looking out for us. how much of this is an indictment on that relationship? >> i think there is someone we talk about that. we do not called superfund anymore. we call it super failure and politics are involved and there are some loopholes in their that

once it becomes a superfund site is the death for the people. politically and between government and big corporations, somewhere is going to get a pass. that is concerning. we cannot continue to do that. it is people that run these companies and nobody is ever going to convince me that a ceo would not care if his child was poisoned. communities and companies go hand in hand. i am out there with these communities. they do not want to be poisoned either. and somehow it is these companies that have the technology, who have the person power and have the funds, it becomes a moral issue. it can do the right thing, you can do the wrong thing. everything that i've seen in america when it comes to the ground water contamination and the poisoning of people i see, it is a moral issue. tavis: back to the film and the water crisis. does the film give us any indication of how long -- we

have talked about california and how close we are to the press is here. does the film careegive us any sense of how long we have until the supply is gone? >> our people are not getting water? as short as 50 years. and it goes by quick. i know that for sure when i turned 50. oh my gosh, it is here. i have this experience -- i was born and raised in kansas. water would be a commodity in my lifetime. water is a necessary element to anyone of us. this -- to sustain life. it does not matter who you are. and when he passed away last year, i will never forget it. he was sitting there 80 years old and he was shaking his head and i said, what is wrong? because it is here. i never thought it would come.

50 years for us to have no water potentially. tavis: i am glad you went there because there are two questions i want to ask about family, what about your parents and your son. you mentioned your dad and your mom was a journalist. >> my mom was a dual major tool -- journalist and sociology. tavis: this kind of advocacy, energy comes from someplace. tell me about your mom and them. >> if you think about it, none can take it with this when we are gone. it is what we leave that will matter. they taught me the value of good water and being outside and farming and family and health. that is it. for me what i see happening is deterioration of the family parikh is deterioration of our

health. it is the breakdown of the fundamental core value system that i think this country was built upon that we have moved away from. we need to get back to that or we risk huge failure. my mother and my father were my absolute inspiration. tavis: i read about your son. i thought about how interesting a dialectic this is. you are challenging the government to do better. your son served in afghanistan protecting our freedoms in this country. does that strike you as being an interesting interplay? >> every single day. every single day. i get down and i thank god that my son came home alive and so many of us -- his friends did not. he was one of a few. the rest were murdered in front of him. the war is terrible and i have -- i uphold what our men and

women are willing to sacrifice and do for us and to see this happening at home breaks my heart. i am very involved in a situation called -- "nightline" just did a special and they knew they had a very severe tce and benzene water contamination. our soldiers have come home to be poisoned on their own soil in the united states of america and find out their own families have been poisoned. they have lost their children to birth defects. they have lost their children at the age of 10 and 11 and 12 to leukemia, to the tens upon tens of thousands of soldiers who could lose their life from cancer do to ground water contamination. numbers higher than we see in the war. it is absolutely to be inexcusable and the biggest black eye that america has.

we cannot allow that to happen. tavis: i doubt seriously if this is your first time seeing erin brockovich, if you saw the movie about her work starring julia roberts, she won the massacre -- academy award, you know it is real. the passion. i love the passion, and people sitting in for the first time they get now that julia was playing a real character. she is fighting for the protection and preservation of clean water. the new project is called "last call at the oasis," and you should check it out. good to have you on the program. >> thank you. tavis: that is our show for tonight. you can download are new -- our new app. good night from l.a..

as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with -- elija wood. that is next time. we will see you then. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> be more. pbs. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley.