Over the following five years, she gave motivational speeches to universities, women’s organizations and the like about her experiences investigating contaminated drinking water in the Mojave Desert community of Hinkley. She wrote a book and did some television work, but then slowed down.

More recently, however, Brockovich has picked up the pace again. “I see myself becoming an enterprise,” Brockovich said.

She’s president of Brockovich Research & Consulting, a company she runs with a couple of assistants out of her Agoura Hills home. She advises people who believe they’ve been hurt by contamination by getting them connected with public agencies and lawyers, who pay her.

She also has popped up on TV commercials lately. That’s because she works as a consultant for New York personal injury and mass tort firm Weitz & Luxenberg, partly as a spokeswoman.

She has a similar role with an Australian personal injury firm named Shine Lawyers. She also works with, but has not worked as a spokeswoman for, downtown L.A. plaintiffs’ firm Girardi & Keese.

“I’ve become this business information hub,” Brockovich, 49, said during a recent interview at her 5,000-square-foot house that she’s done up in a Tuscan motif, where she lives with her husband of 11 years, Eric Ellis; her youngest daughter; and four Pomeranians, a papillon and yellow Labrador. “All this stuff is coming in and I’ve gotten busier. I’m almost like an air traffic controller, trying to find homes and places for people or information so we can generate some solutions.”

Thanks to the movie “Erin Brockovich,” her name will always be associated with contaminated water in general, and in particular chromium 6 or hexavalent chromium, the chemical that led to the lawsuit and a $333 million settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. made famous by the film.

As a result of her fame, she gets constant screenloads of e-mails from people across the United States and the world.

“It’s almost a daunting, frightening task if you ask me because it goes way beyond the United States,” Brockovich said. “I have people with hexavalent chromium problems who have e-mailed me. It’s a problem. It’s not sensationalism, it’s not a joke, it’s not hype, and it’s a legitimate concern that’s got to be addressed.”

“Her influence is still phenomenally high,” said Simon Morrison, a partner at Shine Lawyers in Australia. “She is looked upon as almost an iconic figure.”

He has been working with Brockovich on a case against Alcoa Inc. Residents of a Western Australian township claim their health problems have been caused by the Pittsburgh company’s aluminum refinery there. Alcoa has denied any wrongdoing, saying that its refinery hasn’t created any environmental hazards.

Morrison said the Australian people are inspired by Brockovich’s story, giving clout to the cases with her name attached.

“She has a lot of influence with politicians and judges in the country,” he said.