Puerto Rico today: the water reaches the Capitol; AAA and PREPA say there is none

On August 28, 2026, the Capitol already has on the record what Cabo Rojo said on Sunday. On Thursday the 27th, the Committee on Innovation, Reform, and Appointments, with Thomas Rivera Schatz in the chair, heard the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, the Electric Power Authority, and the Tourism Company. El Nuevo Día, by Génesis Ibarra Vázquez, dated that hearing at 1:56 p.m.: the two public corporations «reiterated» that they do not have capacity to supply the water demand. NotiCel, by Carlos González the same 27th, places the three agencies in that room. Metro Puerto Rico covers the same hearing. The Cabo Rojo march and the file of who collects are already in Puerto Rico today: Cabo Rojo says Esencia no va; the file names who collects. This desk does not remount that note. This page asks something else: what was written, on Thursday, when the agencies read their testimony before the Senate.

The resolutions are not new. On March 30, El Vocero covered the approval of RS-9 — from the PIP, María de Lourdes Santiago and Adrián González Costa — and of RS-459, from Eliezer Molina. That note lives in RS-459 and RS-9. On August 26 El Nuevo Día called the hearing: Molina asking for water capacity. It was held on the 27th. NotiCel anchors the purpose of that session to those two resolutions: to investigate the information submitted to the agencies and the capacity of the supply system in Cabo Rojo and neighboring towns. It is not a litigation caption against Fortaleza. It is a request in committee that was already in the file.

Rivera Schatz, according to El Nuevo Día, said the people sent were reading the testimony the head of each agency wrote. They brought the official position: there is no Electric Power or Aqueduct infrastructure available «to supply water to that project». Both said Esencia «has to supply itself with water by its own means». If agencies this important say no, he asked, «what moved them to grant the siting consulta». He anticipated a second hearing «next Tuesday». The witnesses are not confirmed. At some point, he said, the proponents must appear — Three Rules Capital and Reuben Brothers, through Cabo Rojo Land Acquisition — the OGPe, and the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. This desk prints «next Tuesday» as he said it. It does not fix another date.

PREPA's testimony, on that same El Nuevo Día page, reiterated «clearly» that the Lajas Valley irrigation system «does not have water capacity available to supply new demands», because the existing resource is already committed to agricultural use and to supplying the AAA. NotiCel places Fabiola Rosa reading it on behalf of Mary Zapata Acosta, PREPA's executive director. The AAA, in the same coverage, stressed that «the Authority's existing infrastructure does not have the capacity to supply the project's demand». The reservoirs named are Luchetti and Loco, in Yauco: their primary use, NotiCel says, is to feed the valley irrigation. PREPA, on that page, adds: «Given that that irrigation system is operating at its capacity, there is no possibility of the water resource needed to serve Proyecto Esencia from that filtration plant». NotiUno captures Rivera Schatz with Carmen Jovet: PREPA's written testimony was signed by its executive director, whom he identified only as Zapata.

The water figures are not one. El Nuevo Día puts the initial proposal at 1.253 million gallons a day from the Betances filtration plant, which PREPA says is supplied «in its entirety» from the Lajas Valley. NotiCel figures Betances at 1.5 million — 34 percent of Cabo Rojo's supply — and puts Esencia's need at 1.2 million. El Vocero speaks of more than 1.25. Metro cites the proponents' Explanatory Memorial: 1,252,806 gallons a day. This desk does not pick a decimal. On August 3 the AAA, in the voice of its president Luis González Delgado, did not endorse: Radio Isla and El Vocero noted it. That box is not remade here. At the hearing on the 27th, engineer Ann Ventura, of the AAA Infrastructure Office, speaks: «our position is that our system does not have the capacity». Rivera Schatz: «So Esencia cannot count on the government». Ventura: «Exactly, yes». Metro adds that Ventura said there has been no capacity since September 26, 2024. NotiUno places the AAA's written testimony as signed by Luis González.

PREPA's opposition is not an absolute no to the site. Rivera Schatz asked, categorical, whether the Authority opposes. El Nuevo Día names attorneys Fabiola Rosa Roldán and Blanche González Hodge. NotiCel puts the dialogue. González Hodge, first: «the project as it is presented, yes». Rivera Schatz pressed: yes or no. She repeated: «we are opposed to how it is presented». El Nuevo Día adds that they object only if the developers try to supply themselves from PREPA's supplies. This desk prints both versions. It does not flatten the corporation into a total no to the parcel.

The proponents, in modifying the supply strategy, keep the AAA as a «secondary or backup method in case of emergency». PREPA, in El Nuevo Día, says the Lajas Valley «does not have the capacity needed even to serve as backup to the Esencia project». NotiCel reproduces that same phrase, read by Fabiola Rosa. They also contemplate private infrastructure: a 1.5-million-gallon-a-day groundwater plant, with its distribution system, and a wastewater plant. PREPA asks that the wells be evaluated «in detail»: the southwest aquifers show overextraction, saline intrusion, and recharge limits. Additional extraction, it warns, could degrade the resource. PREPA cannot authorize or assume any commitment that implies an increase in supply to third parties, «neither directly nor indirectly» through connections to the aqueduct system. Metro cites Rosa Roldán: Lajas irrigation operates at its maximum capacity of 23.68 million gallons a day, for agriculture and for the AAA. That figure is Metro's. It is not an endorsement.

Ventura, in NotiCel, spoke of a preliminary evaluation of adjoining systems. The proponent was told that Lajas Urbano does not have the capacity needed for the projected demand. Mayagüez Urbano, she said, has residual capacity to meet current demand and the additional projected demand; even so, infrastructure improvements to the service systems would be necessary. Metro confirms it: using Mayagüez would require improvements to move water from the north to the south of the municipality. That nuance is NotiCel's and Metro's. It is not an endorsement. This desk does not turn it into one.

The lanes of competence were split. Ventura, asked by Santiago, said well-water availability rests «exclusively» with the DRNA. Rosa Roldán: energy capacity belongs to LUMA, not to PREPA. Senator Héctor Joaquín Sánchez asked whether they had recorded the supply concerns before the OGPe. González Hodge, according to El Nuevo Día: while the OGPe was evaluating Esencia, PREPA did not have access to the Single Business Portal because the opportunity to comment had been transferred to LUMA; even so, they sent two letters «explaining that there was no supply».

Turismo testified at the same hearing. El Nuevo Día: access to the approved tax credits — which exceed 497 million dollars — is conditioned on requirements, among them «eligible investment actually made». El Vocero frames Turismo's role in tax benefits and a conditioned environmental recommendation, not a water certification. Metro names the witness: attorney Raúl Márquez. It figures the credit at about 497.6 million, in six phases, under Ley 74-2010, and clarifies that the June 2025 recommendation is not a permit or a certification that there is enough water. That credits investigation is already in tourism credits. The 40 percent breakdown and Ley 38. This desk does not remount that note. They live in Ley 38-2026: existing decrees keep the 0% and in the first piece.

After the hearing, El Vocero cites Beatriz Llenín Figueroa, of the Defiende a Cabo Rojo Coalition, and María de Lourdes Santiago Negrón. Llenín: the agencies confirm what the Coalition has documented for two years. She asks how the OGPe approved the Environmental Impact Statement in December 2025 and the siting consulta in July 2026. Santiago: «There cannot be a drop of water for Esencia from Cabo Rojo's Betances plant or from the Lajas Valley irrigation system». She discards those two intakes and points to wells on the parcel, «about two million gallons a day», which, she says, are not clear in the consulta. On Tuesday, she said, the DRNA secretary must explain whether those wells were authorized. That «drop of water» is Santiago's, in El Vocero. It is not a ruling by this desk.

Santiago also questioned a photovoltaic farm. The project, according to her in El Vocero, claims at least 30 cuerdas; the experts she cites speak of up to 90 cuerdas for 12 MW. That comparison is hers, on that page. It is not a study this desk recounts.

Guarionex Padilla Marty, spokesman for the coalition, told El Nuevo Día that from the hearing it follows that PREPA and Aqueducts do not endorse, and that going independent, drilling wells, and affecting the aquifer could be «catastrophic» for the Peñones de Melones ecosystems. Jannette Ramos, in NotiCel: the OGPe approved the consulta «in record time» and without public hearings, despite more than 1,000 citizen requests. This desk's note, more than 800 letters without hearings, says more than 800. The number is not picked. Llenín, in El Vocero, speaks of a statement by more than 44 scientists and of Sunday's march, with citizen hearings because, she says, the consulta did not have them. The cultural chorus is in 205 figures, Esencia no va. This desk does not remount that note.

The unit counts are not one. The PR Newswire release of August 11, already in the first piece, puts 1,200 residences and 500 rooms. The EIS, the CPI, and the hearing — NotiCel in a box, Metro on the 27th — handle 1,132 residences and 530 hotel units; the CPI, in the June note, has also put 520. Marea reads 1,070 residences and 307 rooms: that reading is Marea's, an outlier. It is not called «the consulta». They are not averaged. The first piece leaves them together.

The twenty-day clock before Appeals expired August 19. That count is in the OGPe consulta without hearings. The consulta is not a construction permit. The approval leaves it in writing: Jean Peña Payano leaves the DRNA endorsements. On August 22, El Nuevo Día dates two adjoining-owner challenges to the maritime-terrestrial demarcation. In these pages there is no ruling that voids the consulta. Rivera Schatz, in NotiCel: «We are going to investigate; if there is any deviation, we will make the corresponding referrals. The Assembly is not a court or a prosecutor's office». He added that projects with permits «fairly obtained» are recognized and supported, and that those that do not have them are questioned and referred. «Both Electric Power and Aqueducts have said they cannot count on them. There is no resource». He also said: «We are going to hear everyone. We have to see if in fact it was fast, why, and whether things were skipped that should not have been skipped». NotiCel advances that the proponents will have to set out the alternatives for supplying themselves with potable water. The proponents are summoned for Tuesday. Also the OGPe — NotiCel says «the new assistant secretary», without a name — and the DRNA. The Ley 82 frame is already in the signing of Ley 82-2026. One link. This desk does not remount that note.

The record of August 27 does not fully match the investment pitch, nor does it cancel it. The pitch remains at 2,000 million dollars and 17,000 jobs. Yesterday's minutes say the AAA and PREPA will not give the water — «there is no resource», in Rivera Schatz's voice — that the Lajas Valley cannot back it up, that the wells go to the DRNA, and that Turismo does not certify the supply. It says a consulta already approved and a Senate that summoned the proponents. It does not say a construction permit. It does not say the governor ordered anything in that room. It does not call on anyone to seize anything. It leaves the minutes beside the pitches. This is not original reporting.

Sources: El Nuevo Día (Génesis Ibarra Vázquez, Aug. 27, 2026); NotiCel (Carlos González, Aug. 27, 2026); El Vocero, Aug. 27, 2026; Metro Puerto Rico, Aug. 27, 2026; NotiUno; Radio Isla. https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/legislatura/notas/acueductos-y-energia-electrica-reiteran-que-no-tienen-capacidad-para-suplir-demanda-de-agua-de-esencia/