Every New Hurricane Creates a Fresh Water Crisis
Scientists are striving to avert the next storm’s impact on the water supply
When Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico in September 2017, the storm destroyed most of the island’s electrical grid. Puerto Rico’s water treatment plants and distribution pumps, which relied on that power, shut down, and 800,000 Puerto Ricans — more than half of the island’s population — lost direct, consistent access to clean water for several months.
“Trees and telephone poles were down throughout entire towns,” says Mark Baker, director of disaster response for the global engineering nonprofit Water Mission, which helps restore potable water access to communities in crisis. “Bridges and roads were washed away. The government was distributing water, but it was often difficult to get access due to blocked roads in many rural communities.” People who relied on private wells had no electricity to pump water up to the surface. That water often wasn’t potable anyway because the sea had contaminated the groundwater many miles inland.
People living near Dorado, on the north side of the island, resorted to siphoning water from a well at a groundwater contamination site that was part of a Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program, says Ben Bostick, PhD, a water quality expert at…
