Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Friday that it is prepared to buy homes and farms in the Mojave Desert town of Hinkley that are threatened by chemically laced groundwater flowing underneath the beleaguered farming community.
The San Francisco utility sent letters to property owners this week expressing interest in purchasing 100 homes and lots in the San Bernardino County town where higher-than-normal levels of cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6, have been detected. The toxic plume has extended in the past year, and the contamination appears to be spreading farther into the aquifer about 12 miles west of Barstow.
"We are interested in purchasing their property," said Jeff Smith, the spokesman for PG&E. "This letter says we would like to speak to them."
The move comes despite recent assurances by PG&E that the chromium-infused water is not a threat to people because the chemicals do not exceed state drinking water standards.
The utility is still trying to live down accusations that it covered up sickness and death allegedly caused by chromium 6, which leaked into drinking water from the cooling towers of a PG&E compressor station between 1952 and 1966.
A 1996 claim filed on behalf of more than 600 Hinkley residents - and highlighted in the film "Erin Brockovich" - ended with a $333 million settlement.
via www.sfgate.com
