Simple Permit and Maintenance Permit: sixty days, two a year and reservoir dredging

They are Rules 3.5.10 and 3.5.11 of Chapter 3.5 of Joint Regulation No. 9473. The first creates the Simple Permit: the short, sixty-day permit for movements below the Formal Permit’s thresholds, with five absolute prohibitions and a cap of two permits a year per site. The second creates the Public Infrastructure Maintenance Permit: the permit with which agencies and public corporations dredge reservoirs, clear water intakes and irrigation canals, and re-establish navigation channels, with its own royalties reinvested in the work. The general rules and the exemptions are in the Chapter 3.5 guide, the Formal Permit has its own, and so do the explosives rules and those on haulage, restoration and bonds.

A Simple Permit is required for every activity that does not qualify for an exemption and meets one or more of these criteria: that it be on private land or the State’s patrimonial land; that it involve moving less than one thousand cubic metres of sand or gravel or less than five thousand of any other component, except for activities covered by the Maintenance Permit; that its purpose be removing the vegetal layer for surveying, drilling test bores, or creating and maintaining access roads between forty and five thousand cubic metres; and that the surplus material be destined for another approved project, an authorised disposal system or a public purpose. The Public Infrastructure Maintenance Permit applies to extraction for the maintenance of public infrastructure works in seven cases, all tied to returning the work to its original design capacity, and it applies whatever the quantity of material moved and whatever the final use given to it.

• For the Simple Permit: complying with the General Requirements for every filing before OGPe, listed in Rule 2.1.9 of Volume II, in addition to the permit’s specific requirements.Verified against the official source
• That the Simple Permit’s activity not be below the water table, nor on public-domain land, nor create ponds or lakes, nor use explosives, nor be carried out on a plot where another application under the same chapter is being evaluated simultaneously.Verified against the official source
• That the Simple Permit’s surplus material be destined for another duly approved project, an authorised solid-waste disposal system or a public purpose: if it is destined for commercial sale, the activity must be authorised under a Formal Permit.Verified against the official source
• For the Maintenance Permit: submitting the Start Order or authorisation issued by the agency or municipality.Verified against the official source
• That every royalty charged under the Maintenance Permit be invested in the area’s infrastructure or maintenance, including the forestation of its surroundings and of the watershed to minimise sedimentation.Verified against the official source

• For the Simple Permit: the activity’s purpose; the quantity and type of material to be extracted, excavated or removed; the site’s dimensions in area and depth or height; the use the material will be put to; and the equipment or machinery with a description of the operational procedures.
• For the Simple Permit: the Restoration Plan for the affected area, if applicable; the corresponding USGS topographic quadrangle section at 1:20,000, duly identified, highlighting the proposed site clearly and exactly; and a location sketch with reference points distinguishable on the ground, such as abutters, signs, colmados, churches, schools and roads.
• If surplus material is hauled for deposit: the certification that it will be used for another duly approved project, an authorised solid-waste disposal system, private land holding a fill-deposit permit or a public purpose, clearly identifying those projects’ location.
• For the Maintenance Permit: the area to be impacted; the quantity and type of material; the equipment and machinery; the description of the operational method; the description of the storage area; whether there will be haulage off the grounds and how the material will be disposed of; the USGS topographic quadrangle at 1:20,000; the description of the stage the project is at; and the Start Order or authorisation from the agency or municipality.

1. 1

   Step 1: When a Simple Permit is what you need

   A Simple Permit is required for every extraction, excavation, removal and dredging that does not qualify for an exemption and meets one or more of these criteria: that the activity be on private land or the State’s patrimonial land; that it involve moving less than one thousand cubic metres of sand or gravel, or less than five thousand cubic metres of any other earth-crust component, except for activities covered by the Public Infrastructure Maintenance Permit; and that its purpose be removing the vegetal layer for survey purposes, drilling test bores, or creating and maintaining access roads, where the activity runs between forty and five thousand cubic metres. That last criterion is the one that meshes with the exemption: below forty cubic metres those three activities are exempt, and from forty upwards they enter the Simple Permit.

2. 2

   Step 2: Where the surplus may go

   If the activity produces surplus material, it must be destined for another duly approved project, an authorised solid-waste disposal system, or a public purpose. And there is a line that decides the permit type: if the surplus material is destined for commercial sale, the activity must be authorised under a Formal Permit, except for activities covered by the Public Infrastructure Maintenance Permit. Selling the surplus takes the works out of the Simple Permit.

3. 3

   Step 3: The five things a Simple Permit never authorises

   Under no circumstances is the following authorised by a Simple Permit: extraction, excavation, removal and dredging below the water table; extraction, excavation, removal and dredging on public-domain land; the creation of ponds and lakes; the use of explosives; and an activity on a plot where any other application under the chapter’s provisions is being evaluated simultaneously. If your works fall into any of those five, the Simple Permit is not the route, however small the volume.

4. 4

   Step 4: Sixty days, and no more than two a year per site

   Simple Permits are granted for a period of not more than sixty calendar days from issue. No renewals are granted for Simple Permits: if the activity is not finished during the first permit’s validity, a second permit may be applied for meeting the requirements, and that will be the second and last annual Simple Permit per extraction site. The rule repeats it in its validity section: no more than two annual Simple Permits are granted per area or extraction site, whatever the volume of material authorised, counting the year from the first permit’s effective date. That is: two sixty-day windows a year per site, and that is all.

5. 5

   Step 5: What is filed for a Simple Permit

   Besides the General Requirements of Rule 2.1.9 of Volume II, what is needed is the activity’s purpose; the quantity and type of material to be extracted, excavated or removed; the site’s dimensions in area and depth or height, and the use the material will be put to; the equipment or machinery with a description of the operational procedures; the Restoration Plan for the affected area, if applicable; the corresponding USGS topographic quadrangle section at 1:20,000, duly identified, highlighting the proposed site clearly and exactly; and a location sketch of the requested area with reference points distinguishable on the ground, which the regulation illustrates with abutters, signs, colmados, churches, schools and roads.

6. 6

   Step 6: The other permit: when what is cleared is a reservoir

   A Public Infrastructure Maintenance Permit is required for every extraction, excavation, removal and dredging for the maintenance of public infrastructure works meeting one or more of seven criteria: that it be in a reservoir administered by, or owned by, a Department, Agency or Public Corporation of the Government of Puerto Rico; that it be associated with returning the reservoir’s original design storage capacity; that it be confined to the reservoir’s physical design limits, including the river’s entry area into the lake, commonly known as the "rabo del lago"; that it be confined to the area immediately at the seawater intakes of AEE generating plants; that it be confined to the area immediately at the intakes of AAA filtration plants; that it be associated with maintaining irrigation canals, retention lagoons designed for flood control or other similar works, to return them to their original design capacity; and that it be carried out to re-establish the original capacity of navigation channels in official ports of the Government of Puerto Rico, whatever entity operates them.

7. 7

   Step 7: Whatever the quantity and whatever the final use

   The regulation closes the list with a rule that changes the analysis: for any of those seven activities the Public Infrastructure Maintenance Permit applies, whatever the quantity of sand, gravel or earth crust moved, and whatever the final use given to the material removed during the work’s maintenance. That is: here the thousand or five thousand cubic metres that separate the Simple Permit from the Formal one are not counted — what governs is the nature of the works, not the volume.

8. 8

   Step 8: What is filed for the Maintenance Permit

   Besides the General Requirements of Rule 2.1.9 of Volume II: the area to be impacted; the quantity and type of material to be extracted, excavated, removed and dredged; the equipment and machinery to be used; the description of the operational method; the description of the storage area; whether material will be hauled off the project’s grounds and the use and manner of its disposal; the corresponding USGS topographic quadrangle section at 1:20,000 highlighting the project’s location clearly and exactly; the description of the stage the project is at; the certification of the surplus’s destination if there is haulage for deposit; and the Start Order or authorisation issued by the agency or municipality.

9. 9

   Step 9: The royalties, and where they must end up

   The royalties charged under this activity are collected by the Agency, Department or Corporation of the Government of Puerto Rico duly authorised to carry out the required maintenance works. Every royalty must be invested in the area’s infrastructure or maintenance, including but not limited to the forestation of its surroundings and of the watershed to minimise sedimentation. And if surplus material destined for commercial sale is produced, the agency responsible for the works has discretion to charge a royalty of up to one dollar fifty cents per cubic metre of processed material, or up to one dollar per cubic metre of unprocessed material. Every royalty collected is reinvested in the infrastructure work’s maintenance or improvement.

10. 10

    Step 10: How long each one lasts

    The Simple Permit does not exceed sixty calendar days and is not renewed: at most there is a second permit, and with that the site’s annual quota is exhausted. The Public Infrastructure Maintenance Permit may have a validity of one to five years, or the maximum time permitted by law. The Simple Permit’s own validity section adds that the Incidental Activity to an Authorised Work Permit and the Incidental Activity to an Infrastructure Work Permit, original or renewal, may also have a validity of one to five years, or the maximum time permitted by law.

Both permits are applied for, processed and issued by OGPe, through the SUI. The Maintenance Permit starts from a Start Order or authorisation issued by the agency or municipality promoting the works, and the royalties are collected by that same agency, department or public corporation, not by OGPe. The DRNA keeps its oversight functions over the chapter’s activities.

• Counting on renewing a Simple Permit: no renewals are granted, only a second permit that exhausts the site’s annual quota.
• Planning works of more than sixty calendar days under a Simple Permit.
• Applying for a third Simple Permit in the same year for the same area or extraction site.
• Using a Simple Permit to work below the water table or on public-domain land.
• Leaving a pond or a lake under a Simple Permit: creating ponds and lakes is never authorised by that route.
• Using explosives under a Simple Permit.
• Filing a Simple Permit on a plot where another application under the same chapter is already being evaluated.
• Selling a Simple Permit’s surplus material instead of destining it for another approved project, an authorised disposal system or a public purpose.
• Filing the Maintenance Permit without the Start Order or authorisation issued by the agency or municipality.
• Applying the volume thresholds to the Maintenance Permit, which applies whatever the quantity of material and whatever the final use.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov

• Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

  drna

  www.drna.pr.gov