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Situation:
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands offer great opportunities to advance water management through our regional project. These islands contain 40 percent farmland and over 20,000 farms – ranking them among the upper 60 percent of US states and territories. Small livestock farms dominate the landscape and animal waste generates wide-spread problems. Onsite wastewater disposal does not meet modern standards and private potable water supplies are increasingly at risk due to growing demands and contamination of existing sources. The compressed nature of development provides great stress on the coral reefs, estuarine fisheries and drinking water supplies that are central to the economic and cultural well-being of the islands. The link between rural and agricultural practices and degraded waters is apparent to residents and visitors alike and there is increasing demand for solutions.
Approach:
An Islands Initiative, led by faculty at UPR and UVI, will harness the expertise of select focus areas to address stakeholder needs within the unique climate, geography and culture of these islands. Activities will build upon ongoing island-centered projects, funded through EPA Region 2 and the NIWQP, involving students and faculty in creating demonstration/training sites and Extension curricula. Initial progress in developing connections between UPR and UVI will be strengthened; where appropriate demonstration sites and training programs will be developed jointly and lessons transferred between islands. Grant funds have accelerated connections with programs at sister institutions of the Northeast including the New England Onsite Wastewater Training Center at URI and the Small Farms Initiative at Rutgers. These programs will assist the Islands Initiative to draw on expertise from national networks, including the Consortium of Institutes for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment and National Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center.
Sampling of Programs in the Region:
Being a new initiative, the first plan of action is to conduct a needs assessment and regional planning. In year one, we will identify common problems, review existing information needs data, inventory existing programs, locate gaps, note programs of distinction, identify opportunities for collaboration and regional expertise and create mechanisms for regional collaboration. There will be strong ties with the Onsite Wastewater, Drinking Water and Private Wells, and Small Farms Initiative focus areas.
The PRAGWATER website facilitates the dissemination of information related to sound water management practices in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Region. The site will also include blogs on water related issues.
The Coral Reef Task Force has developed local action strategies (LAS) focused on coral reef conservation. Identified topics were lack of awareness, overfishing, recreational use, and land-based sources of pollution.
The Coral Bay Watershed Management Plan outlines a comprehensive set of actions and overall management
strategy for improving and protecting Coral Bay from nonpoint sources of pollution derived from
land use alterations and residential/commercial behaviors in the watershed. The plan is intended
to not only identify a set of key recommendations, but to identify specific partners and next steps
towards implementation. The recommendations presented address land use planning, sensitive lands and
aquatic buffer conservation, improved site design and construction techniques, and effective
post-construction discharge prevention, treatment, and maintenance.
The secondary purpose of the project was to pilot a methodology for assessment and planning
appropriate for local agencies to be applied in other watersheds throughout the islands.
In conjunction with the instructors from the Consortium of Institutions for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment, lead by George Loomis, Director of the New England Onsite Wastewater Training Center at the University of Rhode Island, UVI and UPR offer workshops for homeowners, architects and engineers who are installing onsite wastewater treatment systems on the islands. They track the success of these training programs and document alternative technologies that are being used on the islands. UPR and UVI are working on developing OWTS management pilot projects. In Puerto Rico, a demonstration alternative OWTS was constructed and used for training sessions. Regional partners at UPR intend to build upon this success by conducting additional workshops and siting future locations for demonstration projects.
The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority Watershed Stewardship Initiative (PRASA-WSI) is a cooperative effort among regulators and the regulated community to establish watershed management plans for watersheds that serve as a significant source of drinking water and receive significant effluent from PRASA wastewater and drinking water plants. Based on these factors, the Loiza and LaPlata Watersheds were selected for the first PRASA-WSI project. For more information about the PRASA-WSI, see the PRASA-WSI presentation.
In addition to constructing environmental management demonstration facilities, the faculty and extension staff at the University of Puerto Rico have focused on collaborating with the University of the Virgin Islands to address animal waste management issues on small farms in the Virgin Islands. As a result of this transfer of technology, two animal waste management demonstration projects have been designed and are under construction in St. Croix, VI.
