Environmental emergency raises health concerns
CAGUAS, Puerto Rico — Raw sewage is pouring into the rivers and reservoirs of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. People without running water bathe and wash their clothes in contaminated streams, and some islanders have been drinking water from condemned wells.
Nearly a month after the hurricane made landfall, Puerto Rico is only beginning to come to grips with a massive environmental emergency that has no clear end in sight.
“I think this will be the most challenging environmental response after a hurricane that our country has ever seen,” said Judith Enck, who led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency region that includes Puerto Rico under President Barack Obama.
With hundreds of thousands of people still without running water, and 20 of the island’s 51 sewage treatment plants out of service, there are growing concerns about contamination and disease.
“People in the U.S. can’t comprehend the scale and scope of what’s needed,” said Drew Koslow, an ecologist with the nonprofit Ridge to Reefs who recently spent a week in Puerto Rico working with a portable water treatment system.
Puerto Rico has a long history of industrial pollution, and environmental problems have worsened due to neglect during a decadelong economic crisis. A dozen over-packed landfills remain open despite EPA orders to close them because local governments say they don’t have the money.
With homes damaged or destroyed, power lines obliterated and traffic chaotic, many of the EPA’s own island-based personnel were unable to report for work immediately after the hurricane tore across the island on Sept. 20.
Twelve days after Maria made landfall, the EPA said it had 45 people in Puerto Rico. By Sunday that number stood at 85 — a force that Enck said was still insufficient.
Less than 20 percent of the island’s power grid was back online, and though hundreds of large generators have been brought in, the U.S. territory’s out-of-service sewage treatments plants include several that sit upstream of drinking water supplies.
Officials say running water has been restored to 72 percent of the island’s people. The water authority says it’s safe to drink, though the health department still recommends boiling or disinfecting it.
The EPA said it plans to dedicate more staff this week to inspect the roughly 250 small water utilities that serve remote, isolated communities and are typically in poor repair.