Совет тормозит $9,7 млн на пять скважин: всё ещё без разрешения

On September 11, 2026, Metro Puerto Rico reported that the executive director of the Fiscal Oversight Board, Robert Mujica, asked the government to clarify the feasibility, reactivation time, and future costs of five wells of the Aqueducts and Sewers Authority before evaluating a request of up to $9,688,345 from the Emergency Reserve. The request from Governor Jenniffer González Colón, submitted on September 1, seeks to expand a previous authorization from that Reserve to evaluate, rehabilitate, and reactivate five public wells. Request of September 1 ≠ authorization of the 11th. Named Emergency Reserve ≠ check issued.

Mujica wrote, according to Metro, that 'the AAA already faces considerable fiscal and operational challenges' and that 'the current emergency partly reflects the long-term pressure caused by insufficient maintenance. This has to change.' He warned that emergency measures should not create new unsupported financial obligations that affect the corporation's recovery. Emergency investment ≠ hidden recurrent expenditure in the certified budget. Recognition of drought as an emergency ≠ blank check.

Before deciding, the Board wants to know how long it would take for each well to return to service, its current capacity, water quality, contamination risks, and whether the facilities are truly suitable. It requested a meeting with AAA, the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the Office of Management and Budget, the Authority for Infrastructure Financing, and any other necessary agencies. Requested meeting ≠ meeting already held in this primary.

Other coverage of the same letter (El Nuevo Día, Primera Hora, InDiario), used here only as verification, identify the five wells: Dorado Dairy No. 1, Dorado Dairy No. 2, Maguayo No. 2, Campanilla No. 8, and Levittown No. 4, and report the government claim that they could provide around five million gallons per day. Five million gallons alleged by the Executive ≠ flow measured post-rehabilitation. Well name ≠ already productive well.

In terms of costs, Mujica requested an individual breakdown of the $9,688,345 and asked why the full amount is being requested if feasibility studies are still pending. He also asked to explain whether AAA's own resources, federal funds, DRNA resources, or reprogramming of capital improvements were evaluated. Approval of the ceiling ≠ disbursement for the well. Federal not requested in this letter ≠ federal already committed.

About the day after the drought, the Board wants annual costs for operating, maintaining, and monitoring; whether the wells will remain active or as a reserve; and what will prevent them from going out of service again. The government, according to the collected letter, says that the recurrent expenses would go to the certified AAA budget or to the ordinary processes of the Fiscal Plan; the Board responds that it has not seen the magnitude of those costs nor who assumes each responsibility (AAA, DRNA, or others). Promise of budget absorption ≠ certified appropriation.

Lot primary: Metro, September 11, 2026. Hub: Board (38) touching AAA (43) and DRNA (42). Topic: economy. Cousin: null (there is no previous note of the lot about this letter). Unique URL.

Closure: $9,688,345 orders; five wells; recognized drought; pending authorization; 5 million gallons as stated by the government, not as measured by the Board.

This note from Borinquen adheres to the cited primary source: it does not invent figures, does not turn an argument into a ruling, does not treat a budgetary obligation as a disbursement nor an accusation as a conviction. Obligated ≠ disbursed ≠ theft. Interdict ≠ final judgment. Audit with findings ≠ criminal conviction. Request for funds ≠ Board authorization. Signed contract ≠ measured hydrological or electrical outcome. Figures of clients without service are snapshots from a portal or a report, not a census of duration. Where the primary source remains silent on a number, this text also remains silent.