The Emergency Support Function 10 (ESF-10) Puerto Rico continues in its efforts to provide free support to remove vessels wrecked during Hurricane Maria. The tropical weather system devastated Puerto Rico last September.

Response teams recently assessed damage and worked to remove storm-impacted vessels in La Parguera, Piñones, and Sardinera, while continuing outreach efforts to locate vessel owners in Cabo Rojo and La Isleta.

Response teams have identified 375 impacted vessels to date, with 188 of those cases now closed. Teams have made contact with 217 vessel owners, and responded to 35 pollution reports. Pollution prevention specialists have dewatered 7,850 gallons of oily water mixture and collected four cubic yards of oily debris from vessels, reducing the impact on Puerto Rico’s natural resources.

The ESF-10 Puerto Rico continues to remove damaged vessels, which pose pollution and environmental threats, at no cost or penalty to the vessel owners. Under the unified direction of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and the U.S. Coast Guard, the goal is to remove each vessel while mitigating public health risk, preserving native habitat, and increasing the Commonwealth’s ability to reconstitute.

The DNER and the Coast Guard in conjunction with the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Control Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service stood up the ESF-10 command post in Puerto Rico Sept. 27, 2017, after Hurricane Maria struck the island on September 19.