P.R. Laws tit. 22, § 255
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, its 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 said works. The Authority shall have power, when necessary, to initiate suits for condemnation 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 and water rights, 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 are hereby declared 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, together with any existing and outstanding water rights not theretofore surrendered to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 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 relating to declarations of public utility and; Provided, further, That the Authority 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.
History —Sept. 18, 1908, p. 152, § 12.