P.R. Laws tit. 22, § 159
The Authority is hereby directed to make, amend and rescind, as it may deem necessary, rules and regulations concerning the use and conservation of water, disposal of sewage, the care and maintenance and protection of the facilities that are used or usable in the supply, distribution, consumption or use of water and disposal of sewage to the end that the purpose for which the Authority is created be attained, that the health of the inhabitants of the Island of Puerto Rico shall be protected, that the water available shall be utilized in the fullest measure possible and that it shall be made available to consumers with the greatest possible regularity and continuity. Such rules and regulations shall have the force of law and violation thereof shall be deemed to be a violation of §§ 141—161 of this title.
The Executive Director or his duly authorized representatives shall have access, when the circumstances require it, to any building or place, and the right to inspect the same to investigate whether or not violations of said rules and regulations are being or have been committed thereon, or for the purpose of correcting any deficiency which affects the service.
Any equipment, property, apparatus or thing which exists or is maintained in violation of the rules and regulations duly promulgated shall be deemed a public nuisance. In the event of the refusal of the owner, agent or tenant of any property where such a nuisance exists to remove or abate the same within a reasonable time after proper notification, the Authority is hereby authorized and empowered to remove or abate the nuisance at the expense of said owner, agent or tenant.
The owner, tenant or occupant of each lot or parcel of land which abuts upon a street or other public way containing a sanitary sewer or which may be served by any sewage disposal system of the Authority and upon which lot or parcel a building for residential, commercial or industrial use shall exist, if so required by the rules and regulations of the Authority or by resolution, shall connect such building to such sanitary sewer, and shall cease to use any other method for the disposal of sewage, sewage waste, or other polluting matter; Provided, however, That the owner, tenant or occupant of any such lot or parcel having a method for the disposal of sewage, sewage waste and other polluting matter constructed and operated in accordance with standards prescribed or approved by the Secretary of Health as not detrimental to the public health shall not be required to make such connection. All such connections shall be made in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be adopted from time to time by the Authority.
Any person who violates or procures the violation of any of the provisions of §§ 141—161 of this title or of the rules or regulations issued hereunder shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
History —May 1, 1945, No. 40, p. 138, § 20, renumbered as § 19 and amended on May 3, 1949, No. 163, § 1.