---
type: "Bill"
title: "Water resources; water-measuring devices for farm use of surface and ground water; revise provisions"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to water resources, so as to revise provisions regarding water-measuring devices for farm use of surface and ground water; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2025_26"
identifier: "HB 143"
citation: "Georgia HB 143 (2025_26)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["AGRICULTURE", "CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bill Yearta", "Chas Cannon", "Gerald Greene", "Lynn Smith", "Robert Dickey", "Steven Meeks"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 15
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-01-28"
last_action: "2025-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/421acbad-d77f-4c42-9b78-927b53a1fc35"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "c9add94f5ee671d12308c71ec6a199b31c1e625aa73494b62ec87e42dc4f7ae5"
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 143 (2025_26) — Water resources; water-measuring devices for farm use of surface and ground water; revise provisions

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to water resources, so as to revise provisions regarding water-measuring devices for farm use of surface and ground water; to provide for related matters; 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 143/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/237147.pdf)
2. **LC 44 2929/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/230431.pdf)
3. **LC 44 3002S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/234335.pdf)
4. **LC 44 3002S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/232390.pdf)

## Votes

- Senate Vote #281 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **53–0** (pass) · upper
- House Vote #100 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **165–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bill Yearta — primary (person)
- Chas Cannon — primary (person)
- Gerald Greene — primary (person)
- Lynn Smith — primary (person)
- Robert Dickey — primary (person)
- Steven Meeks — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2025-01-28** House Hopper `introduction`
- **2025-01-29** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2025-01-30** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2025-02-13** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-02-27** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2025-02-27** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2025-02-28** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-20** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-21** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2025-03-25** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2025-03-25** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2025-04-07** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2025-05-08** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2025-05-08** Act 72 `executive-signature`
- **2025-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/421acbad-d77f-4c42-9b78-927b53a1fc35`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).