Summary of the water resources of Puerto Rico

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) is the lead agency in the Federal Interagency Study of the Economy of Puerto Rico. At the request of DOC the U.S. Geological Survey is providing a discussion of the water resources of the island for inclusion in the study's section on macroeconomic assessment.

Two of the most important aspects of a water appraisal of an area are how much water is available for use and how good is the water. "How much" is often difficult even to estimate because a considerable amount of data is necessary in order to define the quantity. However, the quality of water is much easier to assess in that variability in the quality of water is not as great as in the quantity of water, and less data are required for equal assessment.