PRASA faces Senate scrutiny over water service failures

Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority Executive President Luis González Delgado

Mayors of San Juan, Bayamón provide depositions

By THE STAR STAFF

The Puerto Rico Senate, meeting as a Committee of the Whole, held a high‑stakes hearing Wednesday to investigate the persistent water service failures that have disrupted life across the metropolitan region for nearly a year. Testimony from the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) and the mayors of San Juan and Bayamón revealed deep operational, structural and managerial fractures inside the island’s most critical water system.

The hearing, convened under Senate Resolution 539, sought detailed explanations for the recurring outages, low pressure, and instability that have affected tens of thousands of residents from Santurce to Bayamón since mid‑2025.

PRASA Executive President Luis R. González Delgado opened his remarks with an apology to residents who have endured prolonged service interruptions. He praised PRASA workers who have labored through extended shifts during what he described as “one of the most intense and challenging weeks” for the island’s potable water system in recent years.

González attributed the crisis to decades of deferred maintenance, aging infrastructure and postponed capital improvements.

“These problems did not arise overnight,” he said, noting that past administrations relied on temporary fixes instead of long‑term solutions. He emphasized that the current administration has advanced more than $7 billion in reconstruction and modernization projects, including accelerated improvements at the Sergio Cuevas filtration plant and the repair of four filters that have been offline since 2020.

“We are not here to apply temporary patches,” González said. “Our commitment is to transform the infrastructure that sustains the quality of life of our people.”

Bayamón Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera Cruz did not appear in person before the Committee of the Whole. Instead, senators received and reviewed his written testimony, which outlined the severe and prolonged impact of PRASA’s failures on Bayamón residents.

Rivera Cruz’s submission described how thousands of residents -- particularly in the city’s eastern corridor -- have endured nearly a year of intermittent service following the August 2025 failure of two 10 million-gallons-per-day (MGD) pumps at the Finca Rosso I station. According to PRASA, the pumps were damaged by a hydraulic shock caused by electrical fluctuations. Although the agency declared the project an emergency, the Financial Oversight and Management Board did not approve funding until November 2025, delaying repairs until at least July 2026.

With only one operational pump producing roughly 5 MGD -- half the required capacity -- Bayamón deployed municipal water trucks, filled community cisterns and installed temporary storage tanks to meet basic needs. Rivera Cruz wrote that the city has spent significant municipal resources on responsibilities that “correspond primarily to PRASA.”

His testimony also highlighted a $25-$30 million redundancy study commissioned by the municipality to reduce dependence on the Los Filtros system and strengthen long‑term resilience.

San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo delivered the most forceful testimony of the day, arguing that PRASA has failed in its ministerial duty to provide continuous and adequate water service. He described the crisis as “prolonged, recurrent, and predictable,” affecting communities from Condado and Ocean Park to Hato Rey, Cupey and Río Piedras, and excoriated the water utility’s leadership over poor communications.

“We see no evidence of good faith,” Romero Lugo said during the hearing. “What has prevailed on the part of the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority’s management is a sense of institutional arrogance.”

Romero detailed two municipal emergency declarations, the activation of the city’s emergency management office, and the deployment of municipal water trucks, police escorts and support personnel. San Juan has supplied more than 2.9 million gallons of potable water to residents and maintained operations at multiple PRASA‑designated oasis sites.

The city has already billed PRASA $621,219.42 for emergency response costs and expects that figure to rise.

Frustrated by what he described as a lack of transparency and ineffective communication, Romero filed a lawsuit on May 29, seeking a declaratory judgment and a writ of mandamus to compel PRASA to restore stable service. The parties later reached a court‑approved stipulation creating a Stabilization and Restoration Committee, granting San Juan direct access to operational information and decision‑making processes for the metropolitan system.

“The people of San Juan deserve clear information and real solutions,” Romero said.