Motel 6 Barstow California

Many Hinkley residents would like to leave but can't

Archive: Read previous coverage of The Sun Hinkley

Hinkley - When Elaine Kearney and her husband Greg first bought 10 acres of here, they bottle of fresh water and return to their home in Ontario.

It was in the mid-1980s and although there may have been rumblings about the mysterious illnesses in the city, the Kearneys never heard of them.

For Kearney, the area was magical. The simple life of High Desert leads to build their dream home on the property in 1995 and sold in Ontario.

"We were desert people. The whole family loves dirt bikes, "said Elaine.

Now they want out of Hinkley.

They are one of the two kinds of people here:. Those who want the groundwater cleaned and restored life before the city became a symbol for water contamination of chromium 6, and those who just want to leave "We want to be compensated properly for rebuilding our house (elsewhere). ... We will not stay here. (mentally) I see this place destroyed mechanically. "
ELAINE KEARNEY

Both paths have their own set of difficulties.

As for those who want to leave, well, ask yourself this question: Would you want to buy a home in Hinkley?

Real estate agents will not show houses Hinkley. And even if they did, many would not see them.

"We fear Hinkley because of a liability," said Joe Brady, who holds the real Barstow group and is president of The Bradco Cos. in Victorville, a commercial real estate firm. "There are some huge issues of disclosure of real estate there."

Hinkley unincorporated population is estimated this year to be slightly below 1700, down about 10 percent in 2000.

size = "2" color = "# ce1337" Plume> apparently growing

Instead of getting better, there is increasing evidence that the plume of contaminated water - made famous in the 2000 hit film "Erin Brockovich" is broadcast or was always greater than expected.

Last month, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials announced 12 new of 56 water sampling wells located beyond the northern border of the plume showed known chromium 6 levels higher than what is thought to be the natural background level.

The provincial and federal governments have not determined how much chromium 6 in water is too, although the two are working on it.

Last year, an agency of California found that 0.

Barstow to home « Yet Another Unitarian Universalist

I awakened sometime in the middle of the night, and had a hard time getting back to sleep: too much caffeine too late in the day. So I listened to the freight cars in the railroad yard behind the hotel. As the cars were moved around the yard, their wheels gave off flute-like, almost musical, tones. First a tone held for three long beats, the basic tone of which was maybe as high as the C above middle C; then it would change in pitch, shifting suddenly to a higher note or notes. I began listening to the change in pitch, using standard solmization syllables to determine the rise in pitch. Do, re, mi, no not quite mi; a slightly flatted third, like the blue notes in jazz or blues. Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti; that’s a major seventh. The notes began to blur into each other, there were chords, I was fast asleep.

The next morning, we took a long walk along the Historic Route 66 in Barstow. The sun was incredibly bright, the air clear and very dry, and because it was so dry we didn’t feel uncomfortable walking through the desert heat. We went down a short side street where there was a big sign that read “Barstow Classification Yard,” and another sign that read “BNSF Barstow CA.” Carol stood around waiting while I took some photographs of the rail yard beyond. We walked past that, taking photographs of the motel and restaurant and other signs next to or on buildings along the highway: “Palm Court American-Chinese Food”; “Yahweh Flooring”; “Entrance /Low Rates / Office,” with an arrow pointing, and a Hindu “Om” symbol; “Route 66 Motel / Vacancy / Free WiFi — Round Beds — HBO — Remodeled Rooms — Best Prices”; “Robertiroz Mexican Food / Open 24 Hours 7 Days a Week.”

On one side of the highway, side streets led to neat modest homes; on the other side of the highway, beyond the Barstow Classification Yard, we could sometimes see the desert. If this strip of highway, with its big bright signs and bright gaudy roadside architecture, was anywhere else, it would have looked gaudy. But the highway was competing with the intense desert sun, and the glare, and the hot dry air, and it was no competition at all for the sun and glare and dry air won handily.

Driving west, we climbed up towards the Tehachapi Pass, through the high desert with Joshua trees here and there on either side. Erle Stanley Gardner, in one of his detective books, writes about driving through the desert at night and seeing “the weird Joshua trees on either side”; they do look weird, they look vaguely humanoid, but to me they have a friendly and very satisfying look to them.

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