The collapse of the sanitary sewer systems posed risks to public health, with high levels of Enterococcus indicating the high probability of harmful pathogens in water. Immediately following Hurricane Maria, Estuario was on the ground assessing impacts from the storm and acting to remedy them. Staff and volunteers collect water quality samples results are posted on Estuario’s social media outlets. Estuario doubled-down on its efforts with #EstuarioRevive, an initiative designed to implement projects to monitor, restore, and increase the resilience efforts of the San Juan Bay Estuary. In the aftermath of the storm, it was very clear to Estuario leaders that aggressive actions needed to be taken to increase both the ecological and economic resiliency of the watershed. Although Estuario was prepared to respond, guided by the adaptation plans established in 2015, aging infrastructure, continued development in the watershed, and intense hurricane forces multiplied the impacts of flooding and water pollution. When Hurricane Maria struck in September 2017, septic and power systems in the San Juan Bay Estuary failed and crucial habitats were destroyed as had been predicted by the vulnerability assessment conducted four years earlier. Image modified from Estuario San Juan Bay Estuary Program: #EstuarioRevive Nearly 70% of the watershed has undergone urban development. The San Juan Bay Estuary Watershed comprises eight municipalities in northeast Puerto Rico. The organization also created adaptation plans that included strategies like infrastructure maintenance, public education, and green infrastructure implementation. Estuario found that there was a high probability of risks from increased surface water runoff, more intense precipitation, and failing septic systems. In response to this work, the San Juan Bay Estuary Program (Estuario)-one of the first NEP organizations to use EPA’s Climate Ready Estuaries resources-developed a climate change vulnerability assessment in 2013 and a Climate Change Adaptation Plan in 2015. In 2010, the Puerto Rico Climate Change Council convened experts to assess the threats posed by urban development and a changing climate to water quality and coastal habitats and published a State of the Climate Report in 2015. The remaining crucial habitats-dunes, mangrove forests, and moist coastal forests-are not only important to the survival of animal and fish species but also provide the first line of defense against tropical storms. With shifts in land use from agricultural to urban development, about 70% of the San Juan Bay Estuary Watershed is paved, and forest cover is highly fragmented.
Connecting eight municipalities in the most populated urban area of Puerto Rico, the estuary is home to hundreds of thousands of people as well as 500 species of birds, mammals, amphibians, and fish. The only tropical estuary within the National Estuary Program (NEP), the San Juan Bay has been recognized as nationally important by the EPA since 1992.
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