2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWELVE - Conservation (§§ 1-16 — 8162) › Subtitle 4A - Water Law (1976) › Chapter 118 - Conservation, Development and Use of Water Resources (§§ 1115 — 1115v) › § 1115r - Right to hearing

(a) The Secretary shall hold public hearings when the matters on which he must pass refer to:
(1) Adoption of rules and regulations or amendments thereto.
(2) Adoption of the integral plan for the conservation, use and development of the water resources or modifications thereto.
(3) Establishment of priorities for consumption.
(4) Granting of dispensations as authorized by § 1115m of this title.
(5) Substitution of supply sources.
(6) Determination of vested rights.
(7) Denial of petition for a permit or franchise or the limitation or revocation of existing permits and franchises when there is controversy.
(8) Declaration of an emergency in accordance with provisions of Section 5(h) of this act.
(9) Imposition of administrative fines and penalties.
(b) The parties concerned with any of the matters listed in subsection (a) may waive their right to a hearing.
(c) The hearings that the Secretary may hold on the adoption of rules and regulations or amendments thereto, or on the adoption of the integral plan for the conservation, use and development of water resources or modifications thereto, or on the establishment of priorities for consumption, or on the granting of dispensations as authorized by § 1115m of this title, or on the substitution of supply sources, or on the determination of vested rights shall be announced by publication in two newspapers of general circulation at least two (2) weeks in advance of the date fixed for their holding.
(d) In the quasi-judicial hearings listed in subsection (a) of this section the persons affected or concerned shall be entitled:
(1) To be notified, personally or by registered mail with return receipt requested, of the proceeding to be held, and to be informed of the facts on which it is based at least fourteen (14) days prior to the date fixed for the hearing.
(2) To appear personally or through counsel and with the technical assistance they deem necessary.
(3) To testify and to present oral and documentary evidence.
(4) To examine and cross examine witnesses.
(5) To request that the appearance of witnesses and the presentation of evidence be ordered.
(6) To request the preparation of a stenographic record of the hearing or an equivalent record.
(7) That the decision be adopted solely on the basis of the evidence presented at the hearing.
(8) That the hearing be public unless this right be waived.
(9) That persons involved in the investigation giving rise to the proceeding do not preside over the hearing.
(e) The Secretary may order the parties requesting the hearings to pay for the expenses and professional and consultant service fees incurred by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources in the hearings and corresponding investigations. The Secretary shall determine the form in which and the time when the payments shall be made, upon the approval of the bills presented by the persons who rendered the services, and these payments shall be covered into a special fund to defray the expenses had by reason of the hearings.
(f) At the quasi-legislative hearings listed in subsection (a) of this section, the persons affected or concerned shall be entitled to appear personally or through counsel and to present the evidence they may deem necessary.
History —June 3, 1976, No. 136, p. 390, § 19.