---
title: O.C.G.A. § 36-34-5. Acquisition and construction of water and sewage systems.
collection: code
id: 36-34-5
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 36-34-5 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-34-5
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-34-5.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-34-5/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t35-t36-ch1-59-(v27)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=66569db4_0#page=691
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
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current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: LOCAL GOVERNMENT / Provisions Applicable to Municipal Corporations Only / POWERS OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS GENERALLY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 36-34-5. Acquisition and construction of water and sewage systems.

(a) In addition to the other powers which it may have, any municipal corporation shall have the power under this chapter:

(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) 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) 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) 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.

## 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.

## 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.

## 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)).

## 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).

## 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).