The Chino Valley MCS camp
A rural camp in Arizona for people with severe environmental illness. It closed 2017.
Keywords: healthy house, porcelain, Arizona, MCS,
chemical sensitivity, housing, history, camp
People with severe environmental sensitivities have difficulty living in regular housing and in populated areas, due to ambient chemical and electromagnetic pollution. A few rural camps have catered to this need.
The Chino valley camp was created in the early 1990s by someone who had MCS herself and who lived on the property. She later moved away and the camp was closed and sold off in 2017.
It was located on ten acres (about four hectares) adjacent to undeveloped public land in the high desert of Arizona, USA. The nearest town was Chino Valley, with Prescott about 25 miles to the south.
One of the steel huts with its kitchen to the right.
The camp consisted of
four living units and a shared utility building with refrigerators and a
washing machine.
Three of the units were
transportable one-room huts, each with their own small bathrooms. These huts
were built with porcelainized steel plates on all surfaces, including the floor
and ceiling. They were built by Dr. Lattieri in
Texas.
Next to each hut was an
ordinary steel garden shed, which served as a private kitchen to keep cooking
odors out of the living space. There were some additional sheds for storage, so
the airspace inside the living units could be kept pristine.
The fourth living unit
was a mobile home that was extensively modified.
The units were
all-electric, with electric space heaters. The elevation was about 5000 feet
(1600 meters), with hot summers and cold winters. The huts were poorly
insulated and difficult to heat and cool.
The camp was not designed
for people with electrical sensitivities, but some who also had MCS were able
to live there.
Utility shed housing washing machine, refrigerators and well system. One of the living units is to the left.
More information
Other articles about multi-unit environmental housing are available at: http://www.eiwellspring.org/multiunit.html.
Sources
The author visited the Chino Valley camp in 2002 and later talked to former residents. The pictures are from the 2002 visit.
2019