---
title: HB 1182. Agriculture; soil amendments; provide for additional prohibited acts
collection: bills
id: 2025-2026/hb1182
cite_as: HB 1182, 2025-2026 Regular Session (Ga.)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1182
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1182.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1182/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/72824
date: 2026-03-25
status: engrossed
corpus_version: bills-2026-09-13
license: Public record of the Georgia General Assembly, via LegiScan; see about.md
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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previous: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1181.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1183.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md
omitted: votes and history
omitted_chars: 1173
omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1182.md?full=1
bill_number: HB 1182
session: 2025-2026 Regular Session
session_slug: 2025-2026
chamber: House
bill_type: bill
status_date: 2026-02-18
last_action: House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub As Amended
sponsors:
  - Trey Rhodes
  - Rob Leverett
  - Jason Ridley
  - Noel Williams
  - John Corbett
  - Lee Anderson
text_version: Comm Sub
has_text: true
legiscan_url: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/HB1182/2025
upstream_id: 2108215
summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5
topic_tags:
  - soil amendments
  - agriculture regulation
  - industrial by-products
  - property line disputes
  - environmental enforcement
---

# HB 1182. Agriculture; soil amendments; provide for additional prohibited acts

## Text

The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment offered the following
substitute to HB 1182:
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
To amend Article 3 of Chapter 12 of Title 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated,
relating to soil amendments, so as to provide for additional prohibited acts; to provide for an
exception; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION 1.
Article 3 of Chapter 12 of Title 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to soil
amendments, is amended by revising Code Section 2-12-79, relating to prohibited acts, as
follows:
"2-12-79.
It shall be a violation of this article for any person to:
(1) Distribute an unregistered soil amendment;
(2) Distribute an unlabeled soil amendment;
(3) Distribute a misbranded soil amendment;
(4) Distribute an adulterated soil amendment;
(5) Fail to comply with a stop sale, use, or removal order;
(6) Fail to submit semiannual reports; <del>or
</del>
(7)(A) Apply or distribute a soil amendment on a site, or on a separate site that has
close geographic proximity to and is operationally connected with the underlying site,
when:
(i) The owner of such site or the person who has applied or distributed a soil
amendment on such site is subject to a consent order, enforcement action, or ongoing
investigation by the department or the Environmental Protection Division of the
Department of Natural Resources, including, but not limited to, actions regarding the
contamination of surface water, ground water, or soil contamination, and such consent
order, enforcement action or ongoing investigation has not been withdrawn or
resolved to the satisfaction of the issuing agency with respect to such site;
(ii) A notice of violation has been issued by the Environmental Protection Division
of the Department of Natural Resources or the department; and
(iii) The department has notified the owner of such site and the person who has
applied or distributed a soil amendment on such site that application of soil
amendments on such site must cease.
(B) For purposes of this paragraph <del>only,</del> the term 'site' means the site identified in the
nutrient management plan submitted to the department or a portion thereof;
<ins>(8) Store any soil amendment derived from industrial by-products within 100 feet of any
property line unless the current owner of an adjacent property provides written consent
to such storage; or
(9) Load or unload any soil amendment derived from industrial by-products within a
public road, as such term is defined in Code Section 32-1-3."
</ins> SECTION 2.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.

## Summaries written by Georgia Commons

The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the text above and is not part of the bill. Quote the text, not the summary.

A Senate substitute to House Bill 1182 would add two new banned practices for soil amendments made from industrial by-products: storing them too close to a neighbor's property and loading or unloading them on public roads.

### Plain-language summary

Georgia law already regulates soil amendments, which are materials added to soil to improve its quality, through registration, labeling, and enforcement rules under the Georgia Department of Agriculture. Existing law already bans things like distributing unregistered, unlabeled, or contaminated soil amendments and lists conditions under which the department can order someone to stop applying amendments on a site tied to environmental violations.
This bill amends Georgia's soil amendment law (O.C.G.A. § 2-12-79) to add two new prohibited acts specifically for soil amendments derived from industrial by-products. It would be illegal to store such material within 100 feet of any property line unless the neighboring property owner gives written consent, and illegal to load or unload the material on a public road, using the definition of public road found elsewhere in Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 32-1-3). The bill also makes a small wording tweak to an existing provision about site definitions and repeals any conflicting laws.

### What it does

- Adds a new ban on storing soil amendments made from industrial by-products within 100 feet of a property line, unless the adjacent landowner consents in writing.
- Adds a new ban on loading or unloading soil amendments made from industrial by-products on a public road.
- Removes the word 'only' from an existing definition clause about what counts as a 'site' for purposes of enforcement actions tied to environmental violations.
- Keeps all of the current law's existing prohibited acts, such as distributing unregistered or contaminated soil amendments, in place unchanged.

### Who it affects

Companies and individuals who distribute, apply, store, or transport soil amendments made from industrial by-products, as well as neighboring property owners whose consent would now be required for storage close to their land. The Georgia Department of Agriculture would enforce the new rules.

### Why it matters

Neighbors of sites that store industrial by-product soil amendments would gain a say over storage close to their property line, and companies would face new limits on where they can stage or handle these materials, including a ban on using public roads for loading and unloading.

### Key provisions

- Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 2-12-79 to add paragraph (8), banning storage of industrial by-product soil amendments within 100 feet of any property line without written consent from the adjacent owner.
- Section 1 also adds paragraph (9), banning loading or unloading of industrial by-product soil amendments within a public road as defined in O.C.G.A. § 32-1-3.
- Section 1 removes the word 'only' from the existing site definition clause in paragraph (7)(B), a minor wording change.
- Section 2 repeals any existing laws that conflict with these changes.

## Status

- Status: Engrossed (2026-02-18)
- Last action: House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub As Amended (2026-03-25)
- Sponsors: Trey Rhodes, Rob Leverett, Jason Ridley, Noel Williams, John Corbett, Lee Anderson
- Official page: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/72824

> The history, votes, and amendments (1,173 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1182.md?full=1