Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 36. LOCAL GOVERNMENT · Chapter 34. POWERS OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS GENERALLY

36-34-5. Acquisition and construction of water and sewage systems.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia.

(a)
In addition to the other powers which it may have, any municipal corporation shall have the power under this chapter:#
1. (1)
  To acquire by gift, by purchase, or by the exercise of the right of eminent domain, to construct, to reconstruct, to improve, to better, and to extend any water system or sewage system, or both, within the municipal corporation;#
2. (2)
  To acquire by gift, by purchase, or by the exercise of the right of eminent domain any lands, easements, rights in lands, and water rights in connection therewith;#
3. (3)
  To operate and maintain any such systems for its own use and for:#
  (A)
  Public and private persons within the territorial boundaries of the municipal corporation who use the system; or#
  (B)
  Persons to whom the system is made available at the property owned by such persons; and#
4. (4)
  To prescribe, revise, and collect rates, fees, tolls, or charges for the services, facilities, or commodities:#
  (A)
  Furnished to persons or users; or#
  (B)
  Made available by such systems to the property owner at such owner’s property. When services are available but not used, the maximum rates, fees, tolls, or other charges imposed shall not exceed the minimum charge or fee imposed on a user of such system.#
(b)
The provisions of subparagraphs (a)(3)(B) and (a)(4)(B) of this Code section shall apply with respect to an individual residential property owner only in the case of a municipality or public water system or project thereof that is exempted from the provisions of subsections (a) and (b) of Code Section 36-60-17.1 pursuant to subsection (d) of such Code section.#

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Ga. L. 1962, p. 140, § 6; Ga. L. 1985, p. 1393, § 1; Ga. L. 2007, p. 737, § 1/HB 247; Ga. L. 2025, p. 1029, § 36(8)/SB 153, effective July 1, 2025.

Amendments

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “subsection (d)” for “subsection (c)” in subsection (b).

Code Commission notes

Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1985, a comma was added following “tolls” in the last sentence of subdivision (4) (now subdivision (a)(4)(B)).

Cross references

Georgia Water Quality Control Act, § 12-5-20 et seq. Contracts between Department of Natural Resources and municipalities pertaining to furnishing of water supplies, § 12-5-72. Georgia Safe Drinking Water Act of 1977, § 12-5-170 et seq. Georgia Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Act, § 12-8-20 et seq. Retention of contractual payments and creation of escrow accounts in contracts for installation, improvement of water or sewer facilities, § 13-10-81. Exercise of power of eminent domain for construction and operation of waterworks, § 22-3-60 et seq.

Law reviews

For article, “Local Government and Contracts that Bind,” see 3 Ga. L. Rev. 546 (1969). For article advocating centralizing industrial and domestic waste treatment by local statutory amendments, see 23 Mercer L. Rev. 603 (1972). For article surveying local government law in 1984-1985, see 37 Mercer L. Rev. 313 (1985). For annual survey of local government law, see 57 Mercer L. Rev. 289 (2005).

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Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia.

Text read from t35-t36-ch1-59-(v27)-2025-pdf.pdf, Volume V27, 2025 edition, pages 691 to 692; merge action: bound only; file SHA-256 6c7b6bcea397.