---
title: O.C.G.A. § 12-4-71. Legislative purpose; duty of Environmental Protection Division to administer part.
collection: code
id: 12-4-71
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 12-4-71 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-71
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-71.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-71/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t12-(v10)-2021-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=67595359_0#page=329
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-70.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-72.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES / MINERAL RESOURCES AND CAVES / MINING AND DRILLING / SURFACE MINING
---

# O.C.G.A. § 12-4-71. Legislative purpose; duty of Environmental Protection Division to administer part.

(a) The purposes of this part are:

(1) To assist in achieving and maintaining an efficient and productive mining industry and to assist in increasing economic and other benefits attributable to mining;

(2) To advance the protection of fish and wildlife and the protection and restoration of land, water, and other resources affected by mining;

(3) To assist in the reduction, elimination, or counteracting of pollution or deterioration of land, water, and air attributable to mining;

(4) To encourage programs which will achieve comparable results in protecting, conserving, and improving the usefulness of natural resources to the end that the most desirable conduct of mining and related operations may be universally facilitated;

(5) To assist in efforts to facilitate the use of land and other resources affected by mining so that such use may be consistent with sound land use, public health, and public safety, and to this end to study and recommend, wherever desirable, techniques for the improvement, restoration, or protection of such land and other resources.

(b) The Environmental Protection Division of the department shall administer this part consistent with the above-stated purposes.

## History

Ga. L. 1968, p. 9, § 2.

## Code Commission Notes

Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1988, a hyphen was inserted in ‘‘above stated’’ near the end of subsection (b).