P.R. Laws tit. 12, § 1115k
(a) The Secretary shall establish, through regulations, the fees to be paid for each permit or franchise which this chapter empowers him/her to grant, except for the provisions of subsections (b), (c) and (d) of this section. When establishing the regulations on the fees to be paid for each permit or franchise, the Secretary shall take into consideration the nature of the permits or franchises, their term of effectiveness, the investment of capital required to make the permit or franchise effective, the amount and quality of the waters whose use he/she shall authorize, the source of the waters, the purpose for which they shall be used, the impact of the utilization of the waters on natural systems and other rights and any other factors he/she may deem necessary to fix reasonable fees.
(b) The payment of fees for franchises shall not be required when property rights exist on certain volumes of water acquired pursuant to previous legislation nor in the case of agricultural, cattle raising and agricultural/industrial utilization, as these are defined by the Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
(c) The annual fee for each salt or sea water franchise shall be one hundred and fifty dollars ($150) plus twenty cents ($0.20) per each million (1,000,000) gallons authorized by the Secretary.
(d) A fifth (1 / 5) of a cent shall be paid per gallon of subterranean fresh water extracted under each franchise for industrial or commercial use.
(e) The funds corresponding to the collection of the fees provided in this section shall be deposited in a special account at the Department of the Treasury, known as the Water Fund, in favor of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
(f) Regarding the funds collected on account of the one-fifth-of-a-cent-per-gallon fee, as established in subsection (d) of this section, the Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources shall set aside said funds for the administration and implementation of the Integrated Plan for the Conservation, Development, and Use of Water Resources through the Office of the Water Plan in the Water Resources Division of said Department, as well as for water resources management and conservation programs, according to the responsibilities assigned to the Secretary of the Department in § 1115d of this title. The Secretary shall set aside part of the funds generated from water franchises for water resource research programs, in cooperation with the USGS, which shall include the preparation of annual reports on the use of water in the Island, the condition of aquifers in the Northern and Southern Regions, and water quality in the main watersheds.
Once the funds for the administration of the Integrated Plan for the Conservation, Development, and Use of Water Resources and for the programs established in this subsection have been set aside, the Secretary may allocate up to ten percent (10%) of the balance in the Water Fund provided herein to defray other operating expenses of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
Notice This section has more than one version with varying effective dates. First of two versions of this section.
History —June 3, 1976, No. 136, p. 390, § 12; Jan. 20, 1995, No. 16, § 1; Aug. 13, 1998, No. 239, § 1; Sept. 22, 2004, No. 408, § 1; Aug. 6, 2008, No. 164, § 1; June 26, 2013, No. 33, § 1; July 1, 2014, No. 78, § 14; July 2, 2015, No. 105, § 13.