This year, the Estuary celebrates on Puerto Rico's Water Quality Monitoring Day the national recognition for its effectiveness in correcting illegal discharges.
August 27, 2021 – San Juan, PR – The San Juan Bay Estuary (Estuary) has been awarded the US Water Prize this year by the US Water Alliance. The award recognizes the Estuary's leading innovative approaches to water management and its commitment to ensuring a sustainable future for the region. The announcement was made by the Estuary's Executive Director during Puerto Rico's Water Quality Monitoring Day (Monitoring Day) at the Condado Lagoon Estuarine Reserve. Monitoring Day will return in person this coming Saturday, August 28, island-wide.
“Water Quality Monitoring Day takes on special significance this year, as we celebrate the national recognition we have received from the US Water Alliance for our achievements in effectively implementing protocols for the detection and correction of illegal discharges into sewered water bodies. It also recognizes the Estuary's ability to lead intersectoral and interagency efforts to achieve these goals immediately,” said Brenda Torres, Executive Director of the Estuary, who was accompanied at the press conference by Rafael Machargo, Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA), Carmen Guerrero, Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Caribbean, and Doriel Pagán, Executive President of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (AAA).
The US Water Alliance educates the nation about the true value of water and accelerates policies and programs that effectively manage water resources to build stronger communities.
Water Quality Monitoring Day, led by Estuary, is celebrated to raise awareness about the importance of water quality in Puerto Rico and to promote citizen participation. Estuary carries out all its projects in close collaboration with communities to ensure the sustainability of our actions and of Puerto Rico.
To learn more about the Estuary and join as a volunteer, you can find us on the Estuary's website, www.estuario.org , and on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram under: EstuarioSanJuan. You can also call us at (787) 725-8165.
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About the San Juan Bay Estuary:
The San Juan Bay Estuary is a non-profit organization that designs, implements, and monitors actions to improve the quality of water and associated ecosystems within the San Juan Bay Estuary watershed, the only tropical estuary in the U.S. National Estuary Program, created by the federal Clean Water Act. It does so with citizen participation and in partnership with the public, private, scientific, academic, and community sectors.
