Section 293.11. Mine effect responsibility.

  The department shall serve as the central unit of state government to ensure that the air, lands, waters, plants, fish and wildlife affected by prospecting or mining in this state will receive the greatest practicable degree of protection and reclamation. The administration of occupational health and safety laws and rules that apply to mining shall remain exclusively the responsibility of the department of safety and professional services. The powers and duties of the geological and natural history survey under s. 36.25 (6) shall remain exclusively the responsibility of the geological and natural history survey. Nothing in this section prevents the department of safety and professional services and the geological and natural history survey from cooperating with the department in the exercise of their respective powers and duties.

1973 c. 318 ; 1975 c. 41 s. 52 ; 1995 a. 27 , ss. 4332 and 9116 (5) ; 1995 a. 227 s. 744 ; Stats. 1995 s. 293.11; 2011 a. 32 . This section is a statement of purpose and does not grant authority to issue a ban on mining activity. Rusk County Citizen Action Group, Inc. v. DNR, 203 Wis. 2d 1 , 552 N.W.2d 110 (Ct. App. 1996), 95-3125 .