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PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico has focused its nonpoint source efforts on control measures in
five priority watersheds. Problems include livestock enterprises, croplands,
and sediment and erosion from agriculture and construction activities. Reducing
Livestock Wastes to Improve Water Quality In Puerto Rico, livestock is both an
important agricultural enterprise and a principal source of nonpoint pollution.
This dichotomy is most evident along the La Plata River, with its abundance of
livestock ventures. The La Plata River is a basin covering some 239 square
miles and containing the La Plata Reservoir, which serves nearly 364,000
residents. Each year livestock enterprises add some 137,000 cubic meters of
fecal waste to the waters of the La Plata River. Over the past four years, the
Environmental Quality Board (EQB), the state agency charged with implementing
the nonpoint source management program, has recommended best management
practices to treat and dispose of animal fecal wastes at livestock farms. Once
farmers implement BMPs, EQB certifies the practice and issues a compliance
certificate. At present, only voluntary controls are used to prevent further
contamination of island waters.
From FY 1990 to 1993, section 319 has provided $1,127,154 for field staff
to evaluate and certify BMP implementation. EQB has provided additional
resources, including in-kind services and personnel. Other local and agency
funds are used to provide farmers with incentives to install BMPs. EQB
recommends that all BMPs installed have collection, treatment, and disposal
components. - Examples of BMPs to manage fecal wastes include collection of
animal waste in oxidation ponds or retention tanks and irrigation systems for
crops using trenches or other methods.
The 319 funds enabled EQB to establish a baseline and track the progress of
water quality improvements during four years of efforts to encourage use of
BMPs in the La Plata River basin, especially upstream of the La Plata
Reservoir. Figure 2-1 tracks nutrients (nitrate, nitrite, and total
phosphorous) and bacteria (fecal coliforms and streptococcus). The figure shows
that fecal coliform and total phosphorous trends improved during the period,
due to efforts to eliminate poultry manure storage on farms. The increase in
nitrate and nitrite and fecal streptococcus shows a continuing problem, largely
because of the increase in poultry farming on the island. However, a new
processing plant, expected to be operational in the near future, will compost
the manure, package it, and distributed it to farmers as fertilizer. This is
expected to decrease these pollution sources.
Also under the nonpoint source management program, the EQB has been
developing an animal waste control regulation (AWCR). This regulation would
give EQB the legal power to require livestock enterprise owners to implement
management systems. It would also empower the EQB to enforce controls to reduce
contamination. After its adoption, the measure will be tested in the La Plata
River basin. This proposal will be sent to public hearing in the fall of
1994.
By continuing the initiatives of the nonpoint source management program,
the Commonwealth plans to further diminish the nutrient and bacteriological
concentrations in the La Plata Reservoir.
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