Naranjito filtration plant reaches 68 filings, no construction permit
The Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados has made 68 permit filings since May 8, 2023 for a new water filtration plant at Bo Nuevo PR-167 km 6.6 Naranjito, and none of them is a construction permit. The latest approval, an infrastructure recommendation request filed August 20, 2026, keeps the project at an early stage.
An infrastructure recommendation request is filed with the permits office before a construction permit or consultation, to check whether infrastructure is available for a project. An approval does not show that any work has started.
What the authority proposes
The filings place the filtration plant on this property, with its intake in the channel of the La Plata river and a pump station at PR-167 km 6.7. The river would be the plant's raw water source.
The same project covers the town's drinking water distribution system: new piping on PR-167, PR-815 and the Lomas del Viento municipal road in Nuevo, a rebuilt Los Cuadrados tank, and relocated Achiote 2, Boricuas and PR-811 pump stations.
A three-year paper trail
Of the 68 filings, 57 are infrastructure recommendation requests. 34 of those were approved and 13 were left incomplete. The project also has an approved environmental assessment determination, filed January 24, 2024, and approved environmental, legal and land-use pre-consultations.
The filing has not stopped since the August approval. The authority made six more infrastructure recommendation requests in October 2026, five on October 12 and one on October 20. Two of them are incomplete and the other four show no decision yet.
Other work on the site
A separate case for the plant's raw water intake received an incidental single permit, filed July 19, 2025 and approved. A newer project for a 38kV substation at the Naranjito water treatment plant drew a request for corrections on its incidental single permit, filed June 10, 2026, and its request for an extension or reopening, filed October 30, 2026, is incomplete.
On September 29, 2025 the authority recorded a forced expropriation of a segregated portion of the property. The last sale before that was recorded on June 30, 2005, for $160,000, to a private buyer.
The property covers 85,320 m2 (918,375 sq ft). The Puerto Rico Land Use Plan classes it as specially protected rural land of ecological and water value, and three zoning districts divide it: R-G (55%), D-G (30%) and C-R (15%).
