The story of North American dam building is incomplete without the United States’ Caribbean territories because the motivations and consequences of building dams there were different than on the mainland. Between 1910 and 1914, the Puerto Rican Irrigation Service built three large dams in the island’s south-east to irrigate canefields owned by North American sugar companies. The water harnessed by the South Coast Irrigation Project (SCIP) doubled sugar yields in its district in the decades following the project’s completion, generating huge profits for North American sugar interests. However, the sugar boom did not lead to sustained economic growth on the island and did little to increase the standard of living for many Puerto Rican fieldworkers and their families. The project also brought a bumper crop of unforeseen environmental consequences. North American engineers underestimated the vagaries of Puerto Rico’s climate. Droughts and extended dry periods led to water shortages that continually menaced irrigation. Stormy weather created another unanticipated problem for the dams. Hurricanes and heavy rains in the mountains north of the sugar lands contributed to high erosion rates that accelerated sediment accumulation in the reservoirs and reduced their storage capacity. Together, drought and siltation threatened to render the dams obsolete. Hydroelectric turbines, installed as an afterthought, provided affordable electricity that powered groundwater pumps to make up for surface water shortages. Groundwater saved the sugar boom, but sediments continued to build in reservoirs, an enduring legacy of US imperialism that is expensive to mitigate. The SCIP preserved socioeconomic and racial inequalities, but reengineered the island’s hydrosphere, turning the parched south-east into a giant canefield and its rivers into repositories for sediments.

中文翻译：

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“干渴的糖地”：1898 年以来波多黎各大坝和帝国对环境的影响

如果没有美国的加勒比地区，北美水坝建设的故事是不完整的，因为在那里修建水坝的动机和后果与大陆不同。1910 年至 1914 年间，波多黎各灌溉局在该岛东南部建造了三座大型水坝，用于灌溉北美糖业公司拥有的甘蔗田。在项目完成后的几十年里，南海岸灌溉项目 (SCIP) 所利用的水使该地区的糖产量翻了一番，为北美的糖业带来了巨额利润。然而，糖业繁荣并没有导致岛上持续的经济增长，也几乎没有提高许多波多黎各田野工作者及其家人的生活水平。该项目还带来了不可预见的环境后果的丰收。北美工程师低估了波多黎各气候的变幻莫测。干旱和长期干旱导致水资源短缺，不断威胁灌溉。暴风雨天气给大坝带来了另一个意想不到的问题。糖地以北山区的飓风和暴雨导致高侵蚀率，加速了水库中沉积物的积累并降低了其存储能力。干旱和淤积加在一起，有可能使大坝过时。作为事后安装的水力发电涡轮机提供了负担得起的电力，为地下水泵提供动力，以弥补地表水短缺。地下水挽救了糖业繁荣，但沉积物继续在水库中堆积，这是美帝国主义的持久遗产，缓解其代价高昂。