Barrow County, GA Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

Division 2 of Article XI, the Barrow County Soil Erosion, Sedimentation and Pollution Control Ordinance, requires a permit for essentially every land-disturbing activity in the unincorporated county. Section 89-1255(b)(1) bars any person from conducting land-disturbing activity within Barrow County's jurisdiction without first obtaining a permit from the planning and community development department, along with a copy of the notice of intent filed with the state Environmental Protection Division when the state general permit applies. Applications must include ten copies of an erosion, sedimentation and pollution control plan meeting the minimum best-management-practice standards of section 89-1254.7, and fees, capped at $80.00 per acre of disturbed land under section 89-1255(b)(3), are due before the permit issues. The Oconee Soil and Water Conservation District reviews each plan and has 35 days to approve or disapprove it; if the district misses that deadline the plan is deemed approved.

Section 89-1254.7(c) sets the substantive controls: a minimum 25-foot undisturbed vegetative buffer along the banks of state waters (50 feet along trout streams), stripping and regrading kept to the minimum needed, disturbed soil stabilized as quickly as practicable, and sediment traps or basins retained until the site reaches final stabilization. Applicants with two or more permit violations in the prior three years can be denied a new permit outright under section 89-1255(b)(5), and the county may require a bond of up to $3,000.00 per acre under section 89-1255(b)(6) to cover corrective work if the site falls out of compliance. Single-family homes disturbing less than one acre outside a larger development, and land-disturbance under one acre generally, are exempt from the permit unless the tract sits within 200 feet of state waters.