Hinkley is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

, in

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...

, United States, 14 miles (23 km) northwest of Barstow, 59 miles (95 km) east of Mojave, north of

Victorville Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810. Victorville is the principal city of a Victor Valley–based urban area defined by the United States Census Bureau: ...

and about a 120 mile (193 km) drive northeast of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, just north of

California State Route 58 State Route 58 (SR 58) is a major east-west state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs across the California Coast Ranges, Coast Ranges, the southern San Joaquin Valley, the Tehachapi Mountains, which border the southern Sierra Nev ...

. The residents have faced concerns over

hexavalent chromium Hexavalent chromium (chromium(VI), Cr(VI), chromium 6) is any chemical compound that contains the element chromium in the +6 oxidation state (thus hexavalent). It has been identified as carcinogenic, which is of concern since approximately of ...

in their well water from the world's largest plume of this cancer-causing chemical.

History

Between the 1960s and 1980s, several miles west of Hinkley along State Route 58, the Hawes Radio Tower at the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Hawes Auxiliary Airfield, a guyed mast, was used for military communication in the LF-range. In

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, Hinkley was one of the filming locations for ''

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

''. Hinkley was also the setting for ''

Erin Brockovich Erin Brockovich (née Pattee; born June 22, 1960) is an American paralegal, consumer advocate, and environmental activist who was instrumental in building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) involving groundwater contamination ...

''.

Groundwater contamination

From 1952, Hinkley has had its groundwater contaminated with hexavalent chromium by a compressor station for natural gas transmission pipelines. Residents of Hinkley eventually filed a

class action A class action is a form of lawsuit. Class Action may also refer to: * ''Class Action'' (film), 1991, starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * Class Action (band), a garage house band * "Class Action" (''Teenage Robot''), a 2002 e ...

lawsuit against

Pacific Gas and Electric Company The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at Kaiser Center, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the norther ...

(PG&E). In 1993,

, a legal clerk to lawyer Edward L. Masry, investigated the apparent elevated cluster of illnesses in the community linked to hexavalent chromium. The efforts of Brockovich and Masry, and the plight of the people of Hinkley, became widely known when the film ''

'' was released in 2000. After many arguments, the case was referred to

arbitration Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a third party neutral who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral (the 'arbitrator', 'arbiter' or 'arbitral tribunal') renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitrati ...

with maximum damages of $400 million. The case was settled in 1996 for

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a

direct-action lawsuit A direct-action lawsuit is brought directly against an insurance company for a wrong done by the insured. In a lawsuit that is not direct-action, a plaintiff brings the claim against the insured, who actually wronged the plaintiff. Once judgm ...

in United States history. In 2006, PG&E agreed to pay $295 million to settle cases involving another 1,100 people statewide for hexavalent chromium-related claims.

Demographics

In early 2016, ''The New York Times'' described Hinkley as having been slowly turned into a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

due to the contamination of the area. The United States does not define a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

called Hinkley, but it does define a

ZIP Code Tabulation Area ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics. These were introduced with the Census 2000 and continued with the 2010 Census and 5 year American Community ...

(ZCTA), 92347. Because Hinkley is contained within this ZCTA, it is possible to obtain census data from the 2000 United States Census for the area even though data for "Hinkley" are unavailable. As of the census of 2000, the ZCTA of 92347 had a population of 1,915. Of note is the fact that there were 485 people (26.7 percent of the population) five years in age or older categorized as having a

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, d ...

, a higher than average figure when compared to the national average of about 19.3 percent. As of the 2010 census, the ZCTA had a population of 1,692 (a decrease of 11.6% since 2000). The 2020 census did not report a population for the ZCTA. But it did report 241 households, an employment rate of 18.1%, and the figure for holding a Bachelor's Degree or higher as 3.8%. The household income was reported as $38,140. The postal ZIP Code is 92347 and the community is inside telephone

area codes 760 and 442 Area codes 760 and 442 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. These area codes serve an overlay complex that comprises much of the southeastern and southernmost portions of Californ ...

Government

The town of Hinkley parks are managed under County Service area 70, Zone W

References

External links

Hinkley: A ghost town in the making
nbsp;– '' The San Bernardino Sun''
www.HinkleyGroundwater.com Hinkley Groundwater Remediation Program
nbsp;– ''Hinkley Community Advisory Committee Website''
U.S. Census Bureau American Fact Finder
{{authority control Populated places in the Mojave Desert Unincorporated communities in San Bernardino County, California Unincorporated communities in California