60.510.  Powers and duties of department. — The functions, duties and responsibilities of the department of agriculture shall be as follows:

  (1)  To restore, maintain, and preserve the land survey monuments, section corners, and quarter section corners established by the United States public land survey within Missouri, together with all pertinent field notes, plats and documents; and also to restore, establish, maintain, and preserve Missouri state and county boundary markers and other boundary markers considered by the department of agriculture to be of importance, or otherwise established by law;

  (2)  To design and cause to be placed at established public land survey corner sites, where practical, substantial monuments permanently indicating, with words and figures, the exact location involved, but if such monuments cannot be placed at the exact corner point, then witness corners of similar design shall be placed as nearby as possible, with words and figures indicating the bearing and distance to the true corner;

  (3)  To establish, maintain, and provide safe storage facilities for a comprehensive system of recordation of information respecting all monuments established by the United States public land survey within this state, and such records as may be pertinent to the department of agriculture's establishment or maintenance of other land corners, Missouri state plane coordinate system stations and accessories, and survey monuments in general;

  (4)  To provide the framework for all geodetic positioning activities in the state.  The foundational elements include latitude, longitude, and elevation which contribute to informed decision making and impact on a wide range of important activities including mapping and geographic information systems, flood risk determination, transportation, land use and ecosystem management and use of the Missouri state plane coordinate system, as established by sections 60.401 to 60.496;

  (5)  To collect and preserve information obtained from surveys made by those authorized to establish land monuments or land boundaries, and to assist in the proper recording of the same by the duly constituted county officials, or otherwise;

  (6)  To furnish, upon reasonable request and tender of the required fees therefor, certified copies of records created or maintained by the department of agriculture which, when certified by the state land surveyor or a designated assistant, shall be admissible in evidence in any court in this state, as the original record; and

  (7)  To prescribe, and disseminate to those engaged in the business of land surveying, regulations designed to assist in uniform and professional surveying methods and standards in this state.