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PG&E to form citizen advisory committee on Hinkley water contamination
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Site where Pacific Gas & Electric bought and razed houses in the Mojave Desert town of Hinkley, CA, west of Barstow. The company was found to have polluted the ground water with cancer-causing hexavalent chromium for 30 years.
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Pacific Gas & Electric is forming a citizen advisory committee in the Mojave desert town of Hinkley. That committee will help keep an eye on PG&E’s protracted cleanup of Hinkley’s tainted water supply.
The town garnered national attention after scientists found hexavalent chromium-6 seeping into local wells. The chemical is linked to cancer, leukemia and other diseases.
Law clerk Erin Brockovich tied the contamination to a PG&E compressor station. Townspeople won a $333 million lawsuit 15 years ago.
The contamination lingered and numerous cleanup efforts have failed to contain it. PG&E says it wants up to six people to advise and share their concerns with the utility and regional water quality board about future cleanup and containment efforts.
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“We already are doing that, that’s why PG&E is forming this board because they don’t like what we’re saying already." That’s Norman Diaz, who’s lived in town a long time. He says he suspects PG&E’s motives.
"They’re gonna try and stop us from getting us to the board by intercepting our complaints.”
Diaz says PG&E should at least let people in Hinkley decide who’ll belong to the committee. The privately-owned utility is recruiting potential members and choosing from that group.
“This is not news to those guys; the only news is they look bad and their reaction is to spend some money and to give the kids some filtered domestic water from Barstow, that’s a better solution to my well problem?! Give me a break.”
Last month, a regional water board said it would impose fines against PG&E over its failure to control the contamination. Erin Brockovich is back in the picture, too – she meets regularly with people in Hinkley to discuss another possible round of legal action.
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