---
type: "Bill"
title: "Water pollution; establish water emergency response procedures"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 2 of Chapter 5 of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to control of water pollution and surface-water use, so as to establish water emergency response procedures; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2013_14"
identifier: "HB 549"
citation: "Georgia HB 549 (2013_14)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ben Watson", "Bill Hitchens", "Butch Parrish", "Jan Tankersley", "Jon Burns", "Ron Stephens"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 19
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2013-03-05"
last_action: "2014-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f92201e2-b3ab-4e0a-85e3-ef468b8616ab"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "d3ba28bc65d32063b2c900e984e9f12e244877d0a9f8b7563ab75d1ef72aedcc"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 549 (2013_14) — Water pollution; establish water emergency response procedures

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 2 of Chapter 5 of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to control of water pollution and surface-water use, so as to establish water emergency response procedures; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB 549/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/144449.pdf)
2. **LC 40 0354/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/133404.pdf)
3. **LC 40 0589S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/141577.pdf)
4. **LC 40 0589S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/141178.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **157–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Ben Watson — primary (person)
- Bill Hitchens — primary (person)
- Butch Parrish — primary (person)
- Jan Tankersley — primary (person)
- Jon Burns — primary (person)
- Ron Stephens — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2013-03-05** House Hopper
- **2013-03-07** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2013-03-11** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2014-02-24** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2014-02-26** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2014-02-26** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2014-03-03** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2014-03-07** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2014-03-10** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2014-03-13** Senate Tabled
- **2014-03-18** Senate Taken from Table
- **2014-03-18** Senate Tabled
- **2014-03-18** Senate Taken from Table
- **2014-03-18** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2014-03-18** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2014-03-26** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2014-04-15** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2014-04-15** Act 501 `executive-signature`
- **2014-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/f92201e2-b3ab-4e0a-85e3-ef468b8616ab`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).