Bucaná River () is a river in the municipality of

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...

. Río Bucaná has its origin in barrio

Machuelo Arriba Machuelo Arriba is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with the barrios of Magueyes, Tibes, Portugués Rural, Portugués, Montes Llanos, Maragüez, and Cerrillos (Ponce), Cerrillos, Machuelo Arriba is one of t ...

where it forms at an altitude of . It forms from the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

Río Cerrillos Cerrillos River (Spanish language, Spanish: Río Cerrillos) is a river in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Río Cerrillos has its origin in barrio Anón and runs south until it feeds into Bucaná River. Río Cerrillos is commonly known ...

and Río Bayagán. It is also fed by Río Portugues during its southernly run. Río Bucaná used to run for some Projecto Salon Hogar (Estudios Sociales, Puerto Rico, Ponce, Hidrografia).
Retrieved 30 October 2011. prior to canalization and other diversion work by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

. It now runs for to drain into the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. This river is one of the 14 rivers in the municipality.

Tributaries

Río Bucaná is formed in barrio

by the confluence of the Bayagán and Cerrillos rivers. It has two tributaries, Río Portugues and

Course

Río Bucaná originates in

Cordillera Central Central Cordillera refers to the New Guinea Highlands. Cordillera Central, meaning ''central range'' in Spanish, may refer to the following mountain ranges: * Cordillera Central, Andes (disambiguation), several mountain ranges in South America ** ...

Monte Jayuya Monte Jayuya is the second highest peak of Puerto Rico measuring above sea level. The mountain is located in the Cordillera Central, on the border between the municipalities of Jayuya ( Barrio Saliente) and Ponce (Barrio Anón). The peak is ...

and runs in a winding fashion to the south receiving feeds from Rio Jauca, Rio Bayagan and Quebrada Guayo. Río Bucaná is channelized from the point it enters the city of Ponce and until it is fed by

Rio Portugues Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

(a river that is also channelized) in Barrio Bucaná at the southern tip of Julio Enrique Monagas Family Park. The channelization project started in 1974 and was completed in 1997. It was a multimillion-dollar investment, with just the first phase costing $120 million. The river empties into the Caribbean Sea near La Guancha. A section of the river used to run alongside Route 14, near the former Hospital de Distrito (now

Hospital San Lucas A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergency ...

), but it has since been diverted. The following table summarizes the course of Río Bucaná in terms of roads crossed. Roads are listed as the river flows from its origin at the confluence of Río Bayagán and

rivers, located in Barrio Machuelo Arriba, north of the city of Ponce, to its emptying into the Caribbean Sea in Barrio Bucaná in the south (N/A = Data not available):

Uses

Río Bucaná is largely used for irrigation of crops on the southern plains of Puerto Rico located east of the city of Ponce.

Notes

:1.One reliable source, (Puerto Rico Department of Environmental Resources) dated February 2007, states that this river forms from the confluence of

and Río Bayagán. However, another reliable source, (Puerto Rico Office of Management and Budget)''Maptest.''
Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. General Purpose Population Data, Census 2000. Unidad de Sistemas de Información Geográfica, Área de Tecnología de Información Gubernamental, Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto. Gobierno de Puerto Rico. Retrieved 24 October 2011. not dated but using data with dates that fluctuate between 2001 and 2010, shows the river forms from various minor streams, and that Río Cerrillos is a feeder river to Río Bucaná. In this article we are using the first source as the most reliable. Still, given that the U.S. Corps of Engineers has been working in redirecting and canalizing Río Bucaná, the reader is advised that the actual origin of the ''current'' river may be one of the two stated above or may well be different yet.

References

External links

USGS Hydrologic Unit Map – Caribbean Region (1974)

USGS Maps of Municipality of Ponce Rivers, showing Rio Bucana and others
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bucana, Rio Rivers of Puerto Rico Rivers of Ponce, Puerto Rico