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 served as administrator of 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 purification system.
Superfund sites
EPA officials said that of last week they still had been unable to inspect five of the island’s 18 Superfund sites — highly contaminated toxic sites targeted for cleanup because of risks to human health and the environment — including the former U.S. Navy bombing range on the island of Vieques.
“I just wish we had more resources to deal with it,” said Catherine McCabe, the EPA deputy regional administrator.
Puerto Rico has a long history of industrial pollution, and environmental problems have worsened due to neglect during a decade-long economic crisis. A dozen overpacked 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 while hundreds of large generators have been brought in, the U.S. territory’s out-of-service sewage treatment plants include several that sit upstream of drinking water supplies.
