2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWELVE - Conservation (§§ 1-16 — 8162) › Subtitle 5 - Environment (§§ 1120 — 1436) › Chapter 128C - Provisions for Proper Management of Used Oil (§§ 1335 — 1335n) › § 1335c - Operating permits—Requirement

(1) The Environmental Quality Board shall promulgate regulations and develop the corresponding forms requiring the necessary operating permits, which shall be renewed every five (5) years, for:
(a) Any person who transports used oil on the roads of Puerto Rico in larger quantities than those determined by the Board;
(b) any person who operates a used oil collection center, and
(c) any facility that recycles, stores, burns or processes used oil.
(2) Any person who applies to the Board for a permit to establish a used oil processing, recycling, or final disposal facility shall submit beforehand to the Solid Waste Authority, an operation plan with a description of the activities to be carried out, to be evaluated pursuant to the guidelines of the Board and the Authority, and upon certification shall be referred to the Board as a requirement for the evaluation of the permit requested. The Plan shall consider at the very least the following aspects:
(a) The nature of the activity.
(b) The processing capacity of the equipment to be used.
(c) The inventory based on volume.
(d) Minimum operating and maintenance capacity.
(e) Reasonable demonstration that the methodology to be used is environmentally safe and adequately safeguards the existing natural resources and the welfare of the general community.
(f) In the case of processing and/or recycling facilities, they must show that they have a market for the reuse of the used oil recovered and processed in their facilities by certifications of the clients/users detailing the terms of agreement and the proposed amount of oil gallons to be received.
(g) In the case of used oil final disposal facilities, they shall show that they have the capacity to reuse the used oil they receive in their facilities for the production of energy or any other reuse practice operating in compliance with the applicable requirements of state and federal regulating agencies.
(3) Used oil processing, recycling and final disposal facilities shall submit to the Solid Waste Authority and the Board:
(a) A semiannual report that includes the amounts of used oil gallons for each of the following items:
(i) An inventory at the beginning of the semester.
(ii) Used oil received in their facilities during the semester.
(iii) Used oil processed, recycled and/or used as fuel.
(iv) Inventory at the end of the semester.
Facilities that recycle their own oil and provide service to no other entity nor benefit from this activity beyond the savings it might generate, are hereby exempted from this obligation. The above mentioned facilities shall be required a semiannual certification.
Semesters shall end on June 30 and December 31 of each year. The reports shall be submitted not later than sixty (60) days after the end of the semester.
(b) Evidence of an updated security plan.
(c) Description of the facilities.
(d) A list of all generators from which they receive used oil.
(e) Evidence of the cession of right of the generator or person in charge of the used oil collection center to the processor so that the latter be the one who receives the payments from the Fund.
(f) A list of all transporters from which they receive used oil.
(g) A certification attesting that their facilities receive used oil only from transporters authorized by the Board, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Public Service Commission.
(h) A certification attesting that all applications remitted for payment from the Used Oil Collection and Management Fund shall be evinced by duly completed manifests.
(4) Processing and recycling facilities shall maintain the permits required by the Governments of Puerto Rico and the United States of America. Evidence of the permits shall be available for inspection by any state or federal regulating agency.
(5) The information requested in subsections (2)(f) and (3)(g) [sic], and in subsections (3)(b)–(3)(h) of this section, shall be submitted semiannually or with greater frequency if they are so required.
History —Aug. 31, 1996, No. 172, § 5; Aug. 29, 2000, No. 230, § 2, eff. 6 months after Aug. 29, 2000.