Arecibo Urbano

Water Quality Snapshot: Arecibo Urbano

Arecibo Urbano is a local-owned community water system that delivers drinking water to 61,119 residents in Arecibo, Puerto Rico (Arecibo Municipio County) through 22,891 service connections. Its water is drawn from surface water sources. EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System records 961 total violations for this system , of which 87 (9%) are health-based, meaning a contaminant exceeded an EPA Maximum Contaminant Level or a required treatment technique failed. A further 854 monitoring and reporting violations are on file. The most recent violation on record dates to 2022.

The most frequently cited contaminant at this system is Surface Water Treatment Rule, recorded in 45 violations (TT, health-based). Under EPA's UCMR5 PFAS monitoring program, 2 PFAS compounds were detected in samples collected from this system, with a maximum reported concentration of 8.6 ppt (parts per trillion). PFAS are persistent synthetic chemicals linked to health effects at very low exposure levels.

Across Puerto Rico, EPA tracks 458 public water systems serving 3,328,141 people, with 164,144 cumulative violations and 34,657 health-based violations on record. About 100% of systems in the state carry at least one violation, and state-wide the average per system is 358.4 violations. Statewide, 40 of 99 UCMR5-tested systems have reported PFAS detections (40.4%).

Arecibo Urbano's 961 violations sit above the Puerto Rico average.

All figures above are sourced directly from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 public data releases and are updated as EPA publishes new reporting cycles.