---
type: "Bill"
title: "Water rights; public trust doctrine; remove references"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 8 of Title 44 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to water rights, so as to remove references to the public trust doctrine; to provide that members of the public have the right to use all navigable streams as highways and for hunting and fishing; to provide for statutory construction; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2023_24"
identifier: "HB 1172"
citation: "Georgia HB 1172 (2023_24)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Al Williams", "James Burchett", "Lynn Smith", "Rob Leverett", "Trey Rhodes"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 17
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2024-02-07"
last_action: "2024-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6f6dfb51-4320-4070-a9e8-be61c615af6f"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "09512dc06a740e0987dfe0c426a6059da0384e5e663350bf44ceb5659d61dc8f"
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 1172 (2023_24) — Water rights; public trust doctrine; remove references

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 8 of Title 44 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to water rights, so as to remove references to the public trust doctrine; to provide that members of the public have the right to use all navigable streams as highways and for hunting and fishing; to provide for statutory construction; 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 1172/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/229042.pdf)
2. **LC 55 0209/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/223161.pdf)
3. **LC 55 0233S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/225579.pdf)
4. **LC 55 0233S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/224412.pdf)
5. **Sen Floor Amend 2** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/229015.pdf)
6. **Sen floor amend 1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/229006.pdf)

## Votes

- Senate Vote #804 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **34–18** (pass) · upper
- Senate Vote #803 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **21–31** (fail) · upper
- House Vote #547 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **107–60** (pass) · lower
- Senate Vote #802 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **17–32** (fail) · upper

## Sponsors

- Al Williams — primary (person)
- James Burchett — primary (person)
- Lynn Smith — primary (person)
- Rob Leverett — primary (person)
- Trey Rhodes — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2024-02-07** House Hopper `introduction`
- **2024-02-08** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2024-02-09** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2024-02-16** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2024-02-26** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2024-02-26** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2024-02-27** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2024-03-20** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2024-03-20** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2024-03-26** Senate Tabled
- **2024-03-26** Senate Taken from Table
- **2024-03-26** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2024-03-26** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2024-04-02** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2024-05-06** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2024-05-06** Act 597 `executive-signature`
- **2024-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6f6dfb51-4320-4070-a9e8-be61c615af6f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).