P.R. Laws tit. 12, § 8004i
(a) Notice to the Environmental Quality Board.— Any person who gains direct or indirect knowledge of an environmental emergency situation that poses a threat or an imminent risk of endangering human health and safety or the environment shall immediately notify the Environmental Quality Board and the pertinent authorities. The Environmental Quality Board is hereby empowered to adopt regulations on that matter.
(b) Responsive action.— Any time the Environmental Quality Board is notified of the occurrence or the possibility of the occurrence of an environmental emergency that poses an imminent risk of serious harm to the public health or safety or to the environment, after the Board has determined the reasonability and veracity of such notice, the Board shall respond to such emergency and require that the person held to be responsible or his/her identified representative onto whom he/she has delegated implement any responsive action as the Board may deem necessary and adequate to protect public health or safety or the environment.
Taking into account the urgency of the response that the situation may warrant, the Environmental Quality Board may state such requirement by immediate oral or written notice at the site and the time of the emergency or by oral and written notice after the emergency. If the person responsible should refuse to act, he/she shall be apprised of the legal authority of the Board conferred under Subchapters II and IV of this chapter to issue administrative orders with the imposition of penalties and fines for noncompliance, and as the situation may warrant, to request that the Department of Justice criminally prosecute the person responsible.
In the event that the person held to be responsible by the Board does not believe [him/herself] to be the cause of the environmental emergency duly identified by the Board, the former shall be entitled to an administrative hearing whereby he/she may present exculpatory evidence in his/her favor, pursuant to the rights conferred to any person under adjudicative proceedings, as per the provisions of §§ 2101 et seq. of Title 3.
(c) Incidence/accident report.— The Environmental Quality Board, through specialized technical personnel, shall have the authority to issue and serve at the time of occurrence of facts a notice upon the person responsible, so that the latter submit to the Environmental Quality Board within a maximum term of five (5) workdays a written incident/accident report stating the facts that led to the environmental emergency.
History —Sept. 22, 2004, No. 416, § 40, eff. 6 months after Sept. 22, 2004.