San Juan, PR — Nearly nine years after storm surge from Hurricane María destroyed the sewer trunk line that carries wastewater and sewage from the La Puntilla community in Arecibo to the treatment plant there, the status of the infrastructure project remains unclear, as does how much money has been spent — and how it has been used — to repair the pipes.
Because the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (AAA in Spanish) has not produced information about the reconstruction work, the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) filed a special legal action Tuesday against the agency in the San Juan Superior Court.
A section of the sanitary sewer pipeline network that crosses the Río Grande de Arecibo and affects the communities of La Puntilla and Islote was taken out of service after Hurricanes Irma and María. Since then, it has operated through a bypass system that causes foul odors near homes and businesses, while the equipment keeping the temporary system running remains exposed on a public roadway.
For that reason, CPI journalist Gabriela Carrasquillo Piñeiro asked AAA public information officer Gian Paul Luciano Ramos in January for records related to the progress of the rehabilitation work on that trunk line.
“The lack of transparency over the use of recovery funds has been a persistent problem since Hurricane María,” said CPI Executive Director Carla Minet. “There has been a great deal of money available, but poor management, bureaucracy and, above all, the enrichment of certain companies that have profited handsomely from that bureaucracy. That is why it is essential to scrutinize projects like this AAA project in Arecibo and the impact this inefficiency has on communities.”
In her records request, Carrasquillo Piñeiro also asked how much had been spent on each of the projects launched to address the pipeline problem, and how much funding had been allocated to expenses related to the electric generator, fuel, filters or materials for the bypass pumps, as well as security services for that equipment, from September 2017 through December 2025.
Although the journalist followed up by email, AAA has yet to provide the information.
“Residents of these communities, local business owners and fishermen in the area do not know the status of this project, have had no say in the search for solutions, and have no details about the public funds invested in addressing a problem that has dragged on for nearly a decade,” Carrasquillo Piñeiro said.
The filing in San Juan court came after CPI exhausted all administrative remedies to obtain the data and documents. The lawsuit states that the agency’s refusal violates “the constitutional rights of access to information and freedom of the press that protect CPI.”
The special legal action was filed by attorneys Luis José Torres Asencio, Judith W. Berkan Barnett and Steven P. Lausell Recurt of the Access to Information Project at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico Law School. Arelis M. Nieves Hernández, a student at the clinic, also participated in this case.
