Report: Puerto Rico’s Drinking Water at Brink of Crisis

Report: Puerto Rico’s Drinking Water at Brink of Crisis.
Puerto Rico’s drinking water system is on the brink of crisis, an environmental group said Wednesday.
Here Are 8 Places to Start The drinking water fails lead safety regulations, while 70 percent of the island is served by water that violates federal health standards.
The government-run water utility also routinely fails to conduct the required safety tests, while failing the safety tests they do conduct, according to a new NRDC report.
And Olson said he expects the situation to deteriorate further, because President Donald Trump’s has proposed big cuts to Environmental Protection Agency programs that fund the Puerto Rican water system and federal safety enforcement mechanisms.
The same utility that provides the island with water manages the sewage system, too, and leaky pipes likely lead to cross-contamination, Olson said.
After the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency sued PRASA and concluded in 2015 they had been dumping six million gallons of sewage into waterways untreated daily, PRASA agreed to invest millions to make big upgrades to the sewage system.
"The environmental problems — people don’t have [water] on their short list of problems in Puerto Rico.
The EPA got involved.
In Puerto Rico, they know what’s going on," he said.

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