2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-EIGHT - Public Lands (§§ 1 — 737) › PART I - Lands Generally; Mines (§§ 1 — 226) › Chapter 9 - Sand, Gravel, and Stone (§§ 201-205 — 220f) › § 210 - Permit—Limitations

(a) The permits shall state the conditions and limitations regarding the activities they authorize. The permits shall be granted for a term not to exceed five (5) years and shall not be subject to transfers or cessions of any sort without the approval of the Secretary. The Secretary shall establish the date of effectiveness of the permits taking into consideration the time it shall take the holder thereof to initiate the authorized activity and furthermore, for just cause, he/she shall have authority to reduce or extend the same. The Secretary shall be empowered to extend its effectiveness, among other reasons, to compensate for the time during which a concessionaire is unable to use his/her permit due to causes beyond his/her control.
(b) The Secretary shall fix a bond on every permit issued by virtue of this chapter, and the same shall be consigned in favor of the Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. In order to determine the amount of the bond the following must be taken into consideration: the real cost of the activity covered by this chapter adjusted to the inflationary level in effect at the time the permit is granted or renewed, plus the total cost of the restoration of the area subject to the permit, which shall not be greater than the amount previously established and the inflationary cost, according to the official projections of the Government of Puerto Rico. The term of the bond shall be extended for one year after the expiration date of the permit. The Department, after just cause has been determined, may require the extension of the term of duration of the bond.
(c) When he deems it necessary, the Secretary may review the conditions and limitations set forth in the permits issued by virtue of §§ 206—220f of this title, and may order the studies and evaluations and improvements he deems necessary for the protection of the public interest, at the expense of the holders.
(d) Upon hearings of a quasi-judicial nature the Secretary may revoke a permit when he has verified that its holder has violated the terms thereof, or when the geological, natural or environmental conditions existing in the area at the time of its issuance have changed significantly, or when it is shown that the revocation would further the health, the safety, the peace or the public interest.
(e) The Secretary shall not issue permits to excavate, extract, remove or dredge components of the earth’s crust whenever any of the following circumstances exist:
(1) When said components are to be extracted from land of public domain or from land belonging to the Commonwealth or to any of its public corporations or municipalities for the purpose of exporting or transporting them outside the jurisdictional limits of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The exportation of material of the earth’s crust shall be permitted only when in the opinion of the Secretary the public interest is not affected and said materials have been extracted from private lands.
(2)
(A) When the place where the activity would be developed is a fishing area or a recreational area, or a beach, or a reef, or an area reserved for natural resources or wildlife, or dunes, or when said place were located in the vicinity of any of the mentioned areas and the excavation, extraction, removal or dredging work might affect the fishing or recreational activities or the integrity of the natural reef of the reserve area.
(B) When the place where the activity is to be developed lies within the sea beach zone; or downstream from dammed rivers, or land devoted to agricultural purposes, except when any of the above places is declared to be a site of special public interest or that the nature of the action applied for has been proven through a Declaration of Environmental Impact not to have a significant environmental impact and the quality of the area, including the harbor easement, is preserved or improved [sic], or for conservation purposes and the control of flooding.
(f) The Secretary shall establish a system which may permit the identification of the source and other circumstances of materials extracted from the earth’s crust which are transported through the public thoroughfares of Puerto Rico.
(g) The Secretary may amend any of the permit terms and conditions whether on request or motu proprio. Any request aimed at modifying in any way the conditions of a permit granted, once the twenty (20) days allowed by law to file a reconsideration of the same have elapsed, shall be treated as an amendment to a permit.
(1) Any request for amendment that changes the information presented in the notice published as part of the process of the granted permit shall require the publication of a public notice of such change and the right to comment about the same in a period no [less] than ten (10) days from the date of publication.
(2) In any request for amendment that generates environmental impacts not previously evaluated by the Department, the Secretary shall insure compliance with the Environmental Policy Act through the circulation of an environmental evaluation or by supplementing the corresponding original environmental document.
(3) Any request for extension of three (3) years shall be evaluated as if it were a request for renewal and it shall comply with the procedure established in § 211 of this title.
History —June 25, 1968, No. 132, p. 314, § 5; June 3, 1976, No. 144, p. 423, § 5; June 27, 1987, No. 54, p. 180, § 4; Dec. 26, 1997, No. 195, § 3; Sept. 2, 2000, No. 370, § 2; Sept. 15, 2004, No. 289, § 1.