293.13 Department duties.

(1) The department shall:

(a) Adopt rules, including rules for prehearing discovery, implementing and consistent with this chapter.

(b) Establish by rule after consulting with the metallic mining council minimum qualifications for applicants for prospecting and mining permits. Such minimum qualifications shall ensure that each operator in the state is competent to conduct mining and reclamation and each prospector in the state is competent to conduct prospecting in a fashion consistent with the purposes of this chapter. The department shall also consider such other relevant factors bearing upon minimum qualifications, including but not limited to, any past forfeitures of bonds posted pursuant to mining activities in any state.

(2)

(a) The department by rule after consulting with the metallic mining council shall adopt minimum standards for exploration, prospecting, mining and reclamation to ensure that such activities in this state will be conducted in a manner consistent with the purposes and intent of this chapter. The minimum standards may classify exploration, prospecting and mining activities according to type of minerals involved and stage of progression in the operation.

(b) Minimum standards for exploration, bulk sampling, prospecting, and mining shall include the following:

1. Grading and stabilization of excavation, sides and benches.

2. Grading and stabilization of deposits of refuse.

3. Stabilization of merchantable by-products.

4. Adequate diversion and drainage of water from the exploration, bulk sampling, prospecting, or mining site.

5. Backfilling.

6. Adequate covering of all pollutant-bearing minerals or materials.

7. Removal and stockpiling, or other measures to protect topsoils prior to exploration, bulk sampling, prospecting, or mining.

8. Adequate vegetative cover.

9. Water impoundment.

10. Adequate screening of the prospecting or mining site.

11. Identification and prevention of pollution as defined in s. 281.01 (10) resulting from leaching of waste materials.

12. Identification and prevention of significant environmental pollution.

(c) Minimum standards for reclamation of exploration and bulk sampling sites, where appropriate, and for prospecting and mining sites shall conform to s. 293.01 (23) and include provision for the following:

1. Disposal of all toxic and hazardous wastes, refuse, tailings and other solid waste in solid or hazardous waste disposal facilities licensed under ch. 289 or 291 or otherwise in an environmentally sound manner.

2. Sealing off tunnels, shafts or other underground openings, and prevention of seepage in amounts which may be expected to create a safety, health or environmental hazard, unless the applicant can demonstrate alternative uses of tunnels, shafts or other openings which do not endanger public health and safety and which conform to applicable environmental protection laws and rules.

3. Management, impoundment or treatment of all underground or surface runoff waters from open pits or underground prospecting or mining sites so as to prevent soil erosion, flooding, damage to agricultural lands or livestock, wild animals, pollution of surface or subsurface waters or damage to public health or safety.

4. Removal of all surface structures, unless they are converted to an alternate use.

5. Prevention or reclamation of substantial surface subsidence.

6. Preservation of topsoil for purposes of future use in reclamation.

7. Revegetation to stabilize disturbed soils and prevent air and water pollution, with the objective of reestablishing a variety of populations of plants and animals indigenous to the area immediately prior to exploration, bulk sampling, prospecting, or mining.

8. Minimization of disturbance to wetlands.

(d) The minimum standards adopted under this subsection shall also provide that if any of the following situations may reasonably be expected to occur during or subsequent to prospecting or mining, the prospecting or mining permit shall be denied:

1. Landslides or substantial deposition from the proposed operation in stream or lake beds which cannot be feasibly prevented.

2. Significant surface subsidence which cannot be reclaimed because of the geologic characteristics present at the proposed site.

3. Hazards resulting in irreparable damage to any of the following, which cannot be prevented under the requirements of this chapter, avoided to the extent applicable by removal from the area of hazard or mitigated by purchase or by obtaining the consent of the owner:

a. Dwelling houses.

b. Public buildings.

c. Schools.

d. Churches.

e. Cemeteries.

f. Commercial or institutional buildings.

g. Public roads.

h. Other public property designated by the department by rule.

4. Irreparable environmental damage to lake or stream bodies despite adherence to the requirements of this chapter. This subdivision does not apply to an activity which the department has authorized pursuant to statute, except that the destruction or filling in of a lake bed shall not be authorized notwithstanding any other provision of law.

History: 1995 a. 227 s. 746, 747, 994; 1997 a. 35; 2017 a. 134.

The DNR is not authorized by this section to issue a rule banning all sulfide mining. The requirement to adopt standards for a mining permit application process is inconsistent with a ban. Rusk County Citizen Action Group, Inc. v. DNR, 203 Wis. 2d 1, 552 N.W.2d 110 (Ct. App. 1996), 95-3125.