[CPEO-BIF] English-only EPA info rankles advocates

[cpeo <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

California
English-only EPA info rankles advocates
Agency says it is assessing need for multilingual material
By Julie O'Shea

With cleanup efforts of Mountain View's Superfund sites in the
spotlight, some residents have started questioning why government
information on the issue hasn't been available in multiple languages.

One of the contaminated areas, the old JASCO chemical factory, sits in
the middle of a large Spanish-speaking community, and some argue that
information on the site should be printed in both English and Spanish.

However, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
say they haven't heard anyone complaining. And until they determine
there is a need -- either through citizen complaints or the discovery of
a large non-English-speaking population near any of Mountain View's
numerous sites -- there are no plans to put out material in additional
languages.

This comes despite 2000 census data showing that 39.9 percent of
Mountain View residents speak a language other than English at home, and
19.4 percent of city residents "speak English less than 'very well.'"

The city's toxic sites are the remnants of an industrial past in which
the solvent trichloroethene (TCE) -- a carcinogen that has been linked
to a litany of ailments -- was leaked into groundwater. Although cleanup
efforts have been underway since the late 1980s, the sites are now under
close scrutiny, as TCE was recently shown to be far more dangerous than
thought.

EPA hosted a community meeting last month where officials told residents
about the new findings, and about a plan to test Mountain View's air to
see if residents and workers are at risk.

But all of the material passed out at the Jan. 22 meeting was in
English; and at a city council meeting last week where EPA officials
gave an update on the contamination, information packets were again
distributed only in English.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.mv-voice.com/thisweek/2003_02_28.bilingual.html

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