2006 Minnesota Statutes

116D.02 DECLARATION OF STATE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY.
    Subdivision 1. Policy. The legislature, recognizing the profound impact of human activity
on the interrelations of all components of the natural environment, particularly the profound
influences of population growth, high density urbanization, industrial expansion, resources
exploitation, and new and expanding technological advances and recognizing further the critical
importance of restoring and maintaining environmental quality to the overall welfare and
development of human beings, declares that it is the continuing policy of the state government,
in cooperation with federal and local governments, and other concerned public and private
organizations, to use all practicable means and measures, including financial and technical
assistance, in a manner calculated to foster and promote the general welfare, to create and maintain
conditions under which human beings and nature can exist in productive harmony, and fulfill the
social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations of the state's people.
    Subd. 2. State responsibilities. In order to carry out the policy set forth in Laws 1973,
chapter 412, it is the continuing responsibility of the state government to use all practicable
means, consistent with other essential considerations of state policy, to improve and coordinate
state plans, functions, programs and resources to the end that the state may:
(1) fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the environment for succeeding
generations;
(2) assure for all people of the state safe, healthful, productive, and aesthetically and
culturally pleasing surroundings;
(3) discourage ecologically unsound aspects of population, economic and technological
growth, and develop and implement a policy such that growth occurs only in an environmentally
acceptable manner;
(4) preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage, and
maintain, wherever practicable, an environment that supports diversity, and variety of individual
choice;
(5) encourage, through education, a better understanding of natural resources management
principles that will develop attitudes and styles of living that minimize environmental degradation;
(6) develop and implement land use and environmental policies, plans, and standards for
the state as a whole and for major regions thereof through a coordinated program of planning
and land use control;
(7) define, designate, and protect environmentally sensitive areas;
(8) establish and maintain statewide environmental information systems sufficient to gauge
environmental conditions;
(9) practice thrift in the use of energy and maximize the use of energy efficient systems for
the utilization of energy, and minimize the environmental impact from energy production and use;
(10) preserve important existing natural habitats of rare and endangered species of plants,
wildlife, and fish, and provide for the wise use of our remaining areas of natural habitation,
including necessary protective measures where appropriate;
(11) reduce wasteful practices which generate solid wastes;
(12) minimize wasteful and unnecessary depletion of nonrenewable resources;
(13) conserve natural resources and minimize environmental impact by encouraging
extension of product lifetime, by reducing the number of unnecessary and wasteful materials
practices, and by recycling materials to conserve both materials and energy;
(14) improve management of renewable resources in a manner compatible with
environmental protection;
(15) provide for reclamation of mined lands and assure that any mining is accomplished in a
manner compatible with environmental protection;
(16) reduce the deleterious impact on air and water quality from all sources, including
the deleterious environmental impact due to operation of vehicles with internal combustion
engines in urbanized areas;
(17) minimize noise, particularly in urban areas;
(18) prohibit, where appropriate, flood plain development in urban and rural areas; and
(19) encourage advanced waste treatment in abating water pollution.
History: 1973 c 412 s 2; 1986 c 444