Reporting tree cutting, illegal dumping and environmental damage to the DRNA

A DRNA complaint is the way to start an adversative-nature proceeding for violations of the laws or regulations under the Department’s jurisdiction, as well as of the resolutions and orders issued under them. The DRNA itself says it without conditions: any person can start one, and every natural and juridical person is empowered to report any illegal activity resulting in the detriment and destruction of natural resources. The complaint is handled by the Rangers Corps, created by Ley Núm. 1 of 29 June 1977 and today governed by Ley 110 of 14 August 2020, the “Rangers Corps of Natural and Environmental Resources of the Government of Puerto Rico Act”.

Any natural or juridical person. The DRNA does not require you to be the landowner, the neighbour or the affected party: the power to report belongs to everyone. What is bounded is the subject: the complaint must concern a violation of the laws or regulations the Department administers, or of the resolutions and orders issued under them. The examples the DRNA itself gives are tree cutting and permits.

• That the matter be a violation of the laws or regulations the DRNA administers, or of the resolutions and orders issued under them.Verified against the official source
• Stating the place of the events: a required field on the form.Verified against the official source
• Stating the date the events occurred: a required field.Verified against the official source
• Choosing the incident type from the form’s list: a required field.Verified against the official source
• Writing the description of the events: a required field.Verified against the official source
• Giving your name, a contact phone and an email address: all three are required fields on the form.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

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   Step 1: Check whether your situation is on the list

   The DRNA form has an incident-type menu, and seeing the list usually settles the question of whether “this counts”. The types it offers are: alteration of a creek or other body of water; apparent illegal hunting or capture; apparent illegal fishing; sighting or rescue of a wild animal; fuel spill; illicit discharge into the storm sewer; illicit discharge into a body of water; burning of tyres or other materials; earth or sand movement or removal; tree felling; illegal sale of exotic species; illegal dump — the box for when someone is throwing rubbish or debris onto a piece of land; manatee stranding; whale stranding; offensive or unpleasant odours; and other type of incident. If yours does not fit exactly, “other type of incident” exists for precisely that.

2. 2

   Step 2: Note down place and date before you sit down to write

   The form requires the place of the events and the date they occurred, both as mandatory fields. If you are reporting something that has been going on for days or weeks, be clear about when you saw it. If you can, note landmarks for the site: that is what lets the Rangers Corps unit actually get there.

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   Step 3: Pick the route: form, email or phone

   The DRNA gives three channels for the same thing. The form on the Querellas page, whose data goes to the Rangers Corps units. The email querellas@drna.pr.gov. Or contacting the Rangers Corps directly at (787) 724-5700 and (787) 771-1124. For something happening right now, the phone is the obvious route; to leave a record with description and detail, the form or the email.

4. 4

   Step 4: Describe the events and leave contact details

   The description of the events is a required field, and so are your name as complainant, a contact phone and an email address. A DRNA complaint is not filed anonymously through this form. If what you are reporting is an illicit discharge, the form also asks for the discharge category — greases and oils, wash water, gasoline, coolants, cement, fertilizers or pesticides, sediment, plastic waste, vegetative material, sewage, paint — and for its appearance: whitish water, water carrying mud or cement, brick colour, traces of toilet paper, sulphur smell, oil slicks and others.

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   Step 5: What a ranger can do when they arrive

   Worth knowing before expecting too much. The Rangers Corps can verbally order the immediate cessation or halting of any activity under the Department’s jurisdiction being carried out without the Secretary’s authorization, or which, having it, is being carried out in violation of its conditions. It can inspect and require the production of any permit, franchise, concession, resolution, insurance, licence or document. It can issue citations for violations of the laws and regulations the Department administers. And it can retain, seize or confiscate equipment used in the violation — from fishing gear to a mechanical shovel or a “loader” — under the Uniform Confiscations Act.

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   Step 6: And what it cannot do

   Two limits that explain why the response is sometimes not what you expected. First, arrest: a Corps member can arrest without a prior warrant when the attempt or violation occurs in their presence; if the violation is established later, through an investigation, a magistrate’s order is required. Second, entry: rangers may enter public property and State waters without that constituting trespass, but entry onto private property requires the landowner’s prior permission, except in the cases provided by Section 6.1 of Ley 170 of 12 August 1988, the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act, or when the ranger is in pursuit of someone who violated the laws the Department administers. Searches require a search warrant, with the exception of vessels and vehicles when the information is obtained in plain view under the licensing powers.

Through the form on the DRNA’s Querellas page, by email to querellas@drna.pr.gov, or by calling the Rangers Corps directly at (787) 724-5700 or (787) 771-1124.

• Believing you must be the landowner or the immediate neighbour to file a complaint.
• Reporting without the place and date of the events, which are required fields.
• Expecting to file anonymously: the form asks for name, phone and email.
• Filling in the form for something happening right now, instead of calling the Rangers Corps.
• Taking the DRNA a matter that does not fall under the laws the Department administers.
• Assuming a ranger can arrest for something that did not happen in their presence: that requires a magistrate’s order.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA)

  DRNA

  www.drna.pr.gov

• DRNA Rangers Corps: duties and powers

  DRNA

  www.drna.pr.gov