FEMA confirms thousands of expired water bottles left on farmland in Puerto Rico

[brooklynite]

Source: The Hill

Tens of thousands of water bottles meant for the people of Puerto Rico after a pair of hurricanes hit the island in 2017 are sitting unopened on farmland near the city of San Juan nearly two years after the disasters.

Photographs of the water bottles emerged this week after international news agency AFP captured aeriel images of the bottles on what appeared to be a private estate 25 miles west of San Juan. Some of the images showed broken pallets with the bottles.

A spokesman from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed to AFP that the water bottles had been provided as part of relief for Hurricane Maria, which hit the island in September 2017.

The water was expired and it was assumed that the bottles are being disposed of, AFP reported. It said the spokesman declined to say exactly how many water bottles there were, how long they were on the farm and why they were permitted to expire.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/455280-fema-confirms-thousands-of-expired-water-bottles-left-on-farmland

[Opel_Justwax]

1. Water does not have an expiration date.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Plastic does.

[Bayard]

4. Baking in the hot sun

Leaches plastic into the water.

[IronLionZion]

3. bottled water can go bad by leaching chemicals from the plastic containers

This is accelerated while sitting outdoors in the sun.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Heck of a job, Donnie.

[Scarsdale]

6. Government waste in action. It is

"only taxpayer money, right?" I want to know how much the Pentagon budget is inflated, since they can afford to hand over a couple of BILLION $$$$ for tRump's asinine wall. They will have to cut down on the $300 hammers etc to let go of this much of their budget. They can suddenly afford this yet the troops live in sub standard housing, needing raises.

[Quackers]

7. Personally I'd rather there be tons of left over water than not enough during the disaster. nt

[littlemissmartypants]

10. It was not distributed so it's not "left over" because the people that

It was intended for never got it in the first place. So it's 100 percent wasted.

[htuttle]

11. We paid a company to distribute water, and they dumped it in a field instead

That's not left over. That's a rip off.

[durablend]

16. And you know what they'll say

"See? Government can't work!"

[NickB79]

15. My wife's grandma in San Juan almost died from dirty water after Maria hit

So it's not "left over". It was desperately needed.

[Everyman Jackal]

8. If Trump hears of this

do you think he will send more paper towels to the Puerto Ricans so they can clean up the water?

[in2herbs]

9. Who owns the private estate where the water was found? nt

[EarthFirst]

12. Someone was paid to distribute it...

Find out.

[2naSalit]

13. It figures...nt

[UpInArms]

14. Good video of the water bottle dump at this link

https://weather.com/news/news/2019-07-30-puerto-rico-expired-water-bottles-field