---
type: "Bill"
title: "State Soil and Water Conservation Commission; revise provisions;"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 2 of Chapter 6 of Title 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to soil and water conservation districts, so as to revise provisions relating to the State Soil and Water Conservation Commission; to provide for administrative attachment; to provide for appointment to the commission; to remove authority related to eminent domain; to amend Chapter 7 of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to erosion and sedimentation control, so as to provide for erosion manual publication oversight; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2015_16"
identifier: "HB 397"
citation: "Georgia HB 397 (2015_16)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chad Nimmer", "David Knight", "Jay Roberts", "Penny Houston", "Terry England", "Tom McCall"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 17
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2015-02-19"
last_action: "2015-04-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/bf04c896-9eb9-4fd5-95ce-4dcc7f2206fc"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "bd2dcbff96cbf927122504bce5babc81c86b0526052299b0e504ab90d02b6e7b"
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 397 (2015_16) — State Soil and Water Conservation Commission; revise provisions;

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 2 of Chapter 6 of Title 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to soil and water conservation districts, so as to revise provisions relating to the State Soil and Water Conservation Commission; to provide for administrative attachment; to provide for appointment to the commission; to remove authority related to eminent domain; to amend Chapter 7 of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to erosion and sedimentation control, so as to provide for erosion manual publication oversight; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; 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 397/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/152861.pdf)
2. **LC 40 0820/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/148485.pdf)
3. **LC 40 0868S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/150552.pdf)
4. **LC 40 0868S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/149751.pdf)
5. **Sen ctee sub LC 40 0922S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/152039.pdf)
6. **Sen floor am 1 AM 40 0141** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/152576.pdf)
7. **Sen floor am 2 AM 40 0140** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/152603.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **156–12** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Chad Nimmer — primary (person)
- David Knight — primary (person)
- Jay Roberts — primary (person)
- Penny Houston — primary (person)
- Terry England — primary (person)
- Tom McCall — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2015-02-19** House Hopper
- **2015-02-20** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2015-02-23** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2015-03-03** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2015-03-09** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2015-03-09** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2015-03-11** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2015-03-24** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2015-03-25** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2015-03-26** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2015-03-26** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2015-03-26** Senate Transmitted House
- **2015-03-27** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
- **2015-03-27** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2015-04-08** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2015-04-08** Act 17 `executive-signature`
- **2015-04-08** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/bf04c896-9eb9-4fd5-95ce-4dcc7f2206fc`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).