P.R. Laws tit. 22, § 304
The Secretary of Transportation and Public Works, his officers, agents or employees shall have the right to enter, after notifying the owner or his representative, upon any lands to make surveys and to locate and establish any of the works contemplated or embraced in said irrigation system, including the lines of any canal, road, tunnel, reservoir site, aqueduct, power station, transmission lines or other requisite; but indemnity shall be paid to the owner for such damages as he may incur in consequence of such works. The Secretary of Transportation and Public Works shall have the power, when necessary, to initiate condemnation proceedings in the name of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, for the acquisition of any land or right embraced within the approved plans of the said irrigation project, and for the purpose of such condemnation proceeding all land, all rights-of-way for the transmission of water and electric currents, all sites for reservoirs, canals, roads, tunnels, aqueducts, ditches, power stations, and other things embraced in and contemplated by said irrigation plan so approved, are hereby declared to be works of public utility and, as such, subject to the power of eminent domain and open to expropriation proceedings in the manner provided by law; Provided, however, That all said rights and things may be made subject of condemnation proceedings without compliance with those provisions of law requiring a declaration of public utility by the Governor pursuant to §§ 2902, 2905, 2906, 2911, and 2913 of Title 32, or any other provisions of law relating to declarations of public utility; and Provided, That the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works shall at all times have authority to acquire for said irrigation system such rights and things wherever possible, by settlement out of court to avoid condemnation proceedings; and, Provided, further, That the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works is hereby authorized and empowered to exchange, with the approval of the Council of Secretaries, watering troughs for cattle for any land that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico may need to acquire for the construction, maintenance or operation of the main canal and of the high laterals of the said irrigation system.
History —June 19, 1919, No. 63, p. 348, § 10, eff. 90 days after June 19, 1919.