Politics, Government and Business in Southern California's Inland Empire
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/11/2013 02:20:17 PM PST
Updated: 01/11/2013 08:52:35 PM PST
View: Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board investigative order
Jim Steinberg,Staff Writer
Posted: 06/23/2012 04:12:21 PM PDT
HINKLEY – The clock is ticking for residents. A deadline looms on Aug. 31.
Everyone faces deadlines: taxes, vehicle license tags, credit card due dates, the last day to get a tag to hunt elk.
But Hinkley residents are facing something much more life altering.
BY DAVID DANELSKI
STAFF WRITER
ddanelski@pe.com
Published: 15 March 2012 08:18 PM
Pacific Gas & Electric Company must pay $3.6 million for failing to contain groundwater pollution beneath the rural community of Hinkley, according to a settlement reached this week with state water quality officials.
$1.8M goes to Hinkley School water system
February 02, 2012 5:11 PM
KATIE LUCIA, Staff Writer
HINKLEY • The regional water board signed a $3.6 million agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric on Wednesday night, dedicating half of that money to build a new water filtration system at the Hinkley School.
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/31/2012 12:33:41 PM PST
HINKLEY – The northern boundaries of that plume of contaminated groundwater continues to advance.
Water samples from new test wells – many installed this past summer – show chromium 6 contamination, above background level, extending north of Mountain General Road for the first time.
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/08/2012 06:03:56 AM PST
HINKLEY – The water agency supervising the clean-up of chromium 6 groundwater contamination here has asked Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to provide more scientific details on the study it did to determine the naturally occurring background level.
The request follows critical reports from three independent scientists recruited to evaluate the 2007 study which determined the Hinkley area has a naturally occurring chromium 6 level of 3.1 parts per billion.
Posted: 12/10/2011 02:15:51 PM PST
HINKLEY – The plume of chromium 6 contamination in this unincorporated community eight miles west of Barstow has leaped a mile in a year, according to maps released by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Traditionally the plume has migrated about a foot per day, said Lisa Dernbach, senior engineering geologist with the water board.
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/25/2011 01:57:04 PM PDT
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has filed an appeal with the state’s Water Resources Control Board to stop an order that it provide permanent replacement water to Hinkley residents affected by a toxic groundwater plume.
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/12/2011 01:03:21 AM PDT
HINKLEY – The water agency overseeing the cleanup of Hinkley’s contaminated groundwater ordered Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Tuesday to provide a new permanent water source to affected users.
PG&E will install an agreed-upon system for the polluted area
September 29, 2011 3:03 PM
SARA MITCHELL
Staff Writer
HINKLEY • Out of five water replacement options presented by Pacific Gas and Electric on Wednesday, Hinkley residents with elevated levels of chromium 6 in their water spoke heavily in favor of keeping their wells and against signing up with Golden State Water Company.
10:40 PM PDT on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com
Despite court setbacks, a proposed open-air sludge composting facility near the high desert town of Hinkley has once again won approval from the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.
On Tuesday, the board voted 3-1, with Supervisor Neil Derry absent and Chairwoman Josie Gonzales opposed, to certify the Nursery Products environmental report for the third time.
The Nursery Products project was first approved by the board in 2007, but a Superior Court judge ordered the county to overturn its approval after finding part of the original environmental impact report was flawed.
Supervisors certified the project study again last year after conducting additional environmental reports.
In April, a judge found the report still inadequate.
The sole remaining issue ordered by the court was a water study showing the project would have a proper supply, said Jim Squire, a planning consultant for the county. A water study by a county hydrologist making those findings was part of the board approval.
To read entire story, click here.
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/25/2011 07:03:17 AM PDT
HINKLEY – Think about this happening to your part of the world.
Eight miles away there are plans for a commercial composting facility that would bring 1,100 tons per day of biosolids – the sludge left over after sewage water is treated – plus a like amount of green materials – like wood chips – and mix them in the open air and allow the mixture to cook in the sun.
PG&E – Hinkley
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/06/2011 10:50:45 AM PDT
HINKLEY — When Elaine Kearney and husband Greg first purchased their 10 acres here, they would bottle up some fresh well water to take back to their Ontario home.
Area north of chromium 6 ‘plume’ shows elevated toxins
August 18, 2011 9:06 AM
SARA MITCHELL
Staff Writer
HINKLEY • Recent tests show elevated levels of chromium 6 in a dozen monitoring wells north of the contaminated Hinkley plume, with one well registering more than three times what’s considered a safe amount of the heavy metal.
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/13/2011 08:18:06 PM PDT
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has asked a water quality board to reconsider its order requiring the utility to provide permanent replacement water for many Hinkley residents for all indoor uses including drinking, cooking and bathing.
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/13/2011 03:14:36 PM PDT
HINKLEY – Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is forming a Community Advisory Committee related to its cleanup of groundwater contaminated with cancer-causing chromium 6.
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/15/2011 07:45:27 PM PST
Environmental and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich on Tuesday shot off a letter to the federal Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment supporting its proposed public health goal for the cancer-causing hexavalent chromium in drinking water.
James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/26/2011 03:11:01 PM PST
California’s U.S. Senators have introduced a bill that would require the federal Environmental Protection Agency to set limits on the amount of hexavalent chromium in drinking water.
Collection to continue
By Joe Nelson Staff Writer
Created: 01/21/2011 09:23:49 PM PST
A water technician began a battery of water tests in the High Desert town of Hinkley on Friday, gathering 13 samples that will be tested for the cancer-causing chemical hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6.
Results from the tests, commissioned by environmental and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich, should be available by the end of next week and are part of an effort by Brockovich and her team to determine the size of a contaminated groundwater plume imperiling Hinkley residents.
Hinkley ready to sell houses
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/17/2011 08:34:51 PM PST
Residents of the High Desert community of Hinkley, desiring to sell their homes to Pacific Gas and Electric, claim the utility is dragging its feet after recent appraisals of their properties.
A survey says the number is not disproportionately high. It’s still important for PG&E to clean up groundwater tainted with chromium 6, says the epidemiologist who did the survey.
Hinkley resident Elaine Kearney, 63, has had seven strokes; her daughter Keri, 41, has advanced lung cancer; and Pinky, her 8-year-old dog, has thousands of tumors. Another daughter had five miscarriages. (Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times / December 9, 2010)
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
December 13, 2010
Reporting from Hinkley —
A state survey has not found a disproportionately high number of cancers in Hinkley, a high-desert community that has become the symbol of public fears about exposure to groundwater tainted with carcinogenic chromium 6.
Comments 24
November 29, 2010 10:11 AM
KAREN JONAS, Staff Writer
HINKLEY • The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board will be deciding soon if an expansion to the treatment of the chromium 6 water plume in Hinkley will be put into place, but residents probably won’t see the results in their lifetimes.
The utility delivered letters to about 100 homeowners on or near the boundary of a growing plume of water laced with cancer-causing hexavalent chromium.
An empty house sits in the path of the plume of chromium-tainted groundwater north of the PG&E plant in Hinkley, Calif. The company has offered to buy about 100 properties on or near the plume. (Wally Skalij, Los Angeles Times / November 24, 2010)
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
November 24, 2010
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has expressed interest in buying about 100 properties in the town of Hinkley, Calif., that are near a plume of groundwater tainted by cancer-causing hexavalent chromium.
L.A. NOW
Southern California — this just in
November 19, 2010 | 6:57 pm
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Friday confirmed that the utility has sent letters to more than 100 residents of Hinkley this week, offering to buy their properties.
The High Desert town has long been threatened by a toxic plume of groundwater contaminated with cancer-causing chromium 6; the situation was made famous by the 2000 movie “Erin Brockovich.”
PG&E previously settled with more than 600 Hinckley residents for $333 million. But company officials say they are now expanding their property purchase program due to residents’ demand.
To read entire story, click here.
Erin Brockovich
Legal aide visits toxic water site
Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/15/2010 09:02:32 PM PST
Former legal clerk turned consumer advocate Erin Brockovich said Monday she plans to conduct independent tests of groundwater in the Mojave Desert town of Hinkley after news surfaced last week that a chemically-laced plume had spread.
Brockovich, who in the 1990s led the charge in a landmark legal settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric, also plans on rallying Hinkley residents for a community meeting after Thanksgiving.
The border of the plume has shifted 1,800 feet beyond a containment boundary set up by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in 2008, spreading higher levels of a cancer-causing heavy metal isotope, state officials say.
Roberta Walker spends time with her pets in Hinckley, Calif. Walker says the plume has been moving toward her house. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times / November 13, 2010)
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
November 15, 2010
Reporting from Hinkley, Calif. —
A plume of chromium-tainted groundwater is once again bearing down on residents of Hinkley, Calif., where more than a decade ago an underdog battle with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spawned a multimillion-dollar settlement and the Oscar-winning film “Erin Brockovich.”
November 09, 2010 5:35 PM
KAREN JONAS, Staff Writer
HINKLEY • Ten years after the film “Erin Brockovich” put the spotlight on tainted groundwater supplies in this desert town, contaminated water continues to spread.
Samples taken in August in Hinkley show the plume of water contaminated with chromium 6, a cancer-causing chemical, has started to migrate into the lower aquifer. Previous reports showed there was a significant concentration of chromium 6 only in the upper aquifer, but samples taken in August show that the lower aquifer near the northwest edge of the plume has also experienced chromium 6 contamination.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s natural gas compressor facility in the San Bernardino County farming community of Hinkley is at the center of the contaminated water controversy.
Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, November 8, 2010
The creeping plume of chemically laced drinking water that plagued the Mojave Desert town of Hinkley and led to a major motion picture about the scandal has continued to spread despite a long-standing order for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to clean up the mess.
Posted by Administrator – September 7, 2010 at 8:00 AM
As I researched the science and history behind the composting site proposed by Nursery Products, LLC, I think what stood out most was that hysteria and hatred completely replaced logic and common sense. It seems many of those who so adamantly oppose this project have likely never read a scientific study regarding the safety of biosolids, visited the nearest composting site outside Bakersfield, or even been to the Hinkley site to observe its isolation for themselves. If they had, they would see what Nursery Products is doing to be a good neighbor and protect the environment, including that of Hinkley. Instead they prefer to direct their deep-seated hatred at those who are easy targets rather than looking for the real evildoers.
Hinkley’s southeast side just down the street from PG&E
www.iepolitics.com
August 10, 2010
Posted by Administrator
In 2003 Los Angeles’ most popular radio talk show hosts, KFI’s John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, broke wide open a shake-down scheme by the Trevor law firm. Trevor used a little-known section of California’s Business and Professions Code to file or threaten to file lawsuits against small businesses, especially auto repair shops and restaurants, and then offer to settle if the businesses agreed to pay up.
The “wrongdoing” by these businesses was trivial in nature and often only wrong due to odd or restrictive interpretations of the law. For example, one suit was threatened because a nail salon used the same bottle of fingernail polish on more than one client.
Environmental report goes to judge
July 13, 2010 4:53 PM
By Jessica Cejnar, staff writer
SAN BERNARDINO • Nursery Products won approval from the county a second time to build a sewage sludge composting facility about eight miles west of Hinkley.
Three members of the San Bernardino Board of Supervisors approved Nursery Products’ conditional use permit Tuesday. Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales dissented. Fourth District Supervisor Gary Ovitt was absent.
10:00 PM PDT on Monday, July 12, 2010
By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise
A proposal for an open-air sludge composting facility near the High Desert community of Hinkley that has raised objections from residents will go back before the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
The board approved the project in 2007 but after opponents sued a Superior Court judge found that part of the original environmental impact report was inadequate and overturned that approval. Nursery Products, the proponent of the project, is again seeking approval of the 80-acre plant on 160 acres near Highway 58, eight miles west of Hinkley.
Reporter Joe Nelson
Sun / Daily Bulletin
Monday, July 12, 2010 – 10:45 am
Last Updated: Monday, July 12, 2010 – 12:08 pm
One thing is obvious these days. Investigative reporting by local newspapers is long gone.
More and more local newspaper reporters are becoming increasingly pliable to ignoring facts when it suits them. A prime example today is a one-sided story in the Barstow Desert Dispatch related to action by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on the Nursery Products LLC – Hawes Composting Facility near Hinkley.
Written by Administrator
July 12th, 2010 at 9:00 am
It is said that the love of money is the root of all evil and human behavior certainly suggests that the adoration of the almighty greenback brings about the demise of many a man. When we come across a panhandler on the street, some of us will throw change his way while others will look in the opposite direction, assuming he is trying to mislead us and get something for nothing.
The same goes for charities and non-profits. Some of us take the good works they tout at face value while others look at all who ask for money with skepticism.
July 11, 2010 8:34 AM
By Jessica Cejnar, staff writer
HINKLEY • A citizens group opposing a proposed sewage sludge composting facility near Hinkley will go before the Board of Supervisors Tuesday in an effort to get the conditional use permit for the project revoked.
This is the second time Nursery Products’ Hinkley project has gone before the Board of Supervisors. County staff is recommending the Board approve the project’s conditional use permit, saying the benefits outweigh the potential impacts. The county initially approved of the facility in 2007.
From a competitor in Kern County, to a middle-man operative, the cast involved in a coordinated effort to prevent a High Desert composting facility from opening is interesting.
The facility to be operated by Nursery Products, LLC is located eight miles west of Hinkley, California, and it’s causing quiet a stir in the High Desert.
Written by Administrator
June 24th, 2010 at 10:00 am
A view of Hinkley, California from Highway 58
I spent a better part of two days this past week exploring Hinkley, California, trying to get a feel for the community and those who live there. It seems to be an area without definition and little has been written about it, which left me with a lot to learn.
Written by Administrator
June 19th, 2010 at 4:35 am
Anyone who listens to John and Ken on the Los Angeles-based radio station KFI 640 may be left with the impression that all environmentally friendly ideas are costly, with little or no positive effect on the environment. From depletion of the ozone and global warming to Cap and Trade and diesel emissions, environmental concerns are controversial and often seem to be based on less-than-sound scientific data and hypothesis. The environmental do-gooders force upon us an extensive array of rules and regulations with little concern for economic consequences or our ability to implement stringent standards without readily available technology or yet-to-be-made scientific discovery.
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