Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (AAA) president Luis González Delgado said the agency has ordered its cloud seeding concentrated on the La Plata reservoir over the coming days, when a trough is forecast to bring rain. National Weather Service director Ernesto Rodríguez said Wednesday and Thursday should be the rainiest days, with less wind, which should let showers, especially over Naranjito, fall inside the reservoir’s basin.
Wind has carried rain out of the basin in recent months, he said. González Delgado said no scheduled service interruptions are foreseen for the La Plata system and that conditions are better than historically observed. He did not say what level La Plata would have to reach before a plan of scheduled interruptions or rationing is set.
The cloud seeding contract, in force since early September, runs through November; the method introduces agents such as silver iodide, dry ice and some salts to influence precipitation. La Plata, the only reservoir in the Adjustments band amid the El Niño drought, held at 43.45 meters on Tuesday, with runoff above 100 feet per second.
AAA will keep making controlled gate openings at Carraízo, which moved from rationing to spilling. Cidra is the only reservoir left in the Watch band. Rodríguez said much of eastern Puerto Rico will leave the U.S. Drought Monitor’s drought zone Thursday, while the La Plata area stays in severe drought and the southern coast in extreme drought.
Secretary of State Rosachely Rivera Santana expects a transfer of about $2 million this week to evaluate four wells in Dorado.