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

Article II of Chapter 38, last amended by Ordinance No. 2018-23 on March 20, 2018, requires anyone conducting land-disturbing activity in unincorporated Clayton County to get a permit from the county department of transportation and development before breaking ground, under § 38-29(b)(1). The application must include an erosion, sedimentation and pollution control plan submitted in five copies, certified that the plan preparer visited the site, and the district has 35 days to approve or disapprove the plan, with no district action within that window counting as automatic approval. State-mandated fees under O.C.G.A. § 12-5-23(a)(5) apply on top of local permitting fees, capped at $80.00 per acre of land-disturbing activity, paid by the primary permittee before the permit issues.

Not every project needs a permit: § 38-27 exempts home gardening and individual landscaping, single-family construction that disturbs less than one acre and is not part of a larger development plan, agricultural operations, forestry practices, and any project disturbing less than one acre outside a larger common plan of development or within 200 feet of state waters. Where the article does apply, § 38-28(b)(2) makes a stormwater discharge that raises turbidity in receiving waters by more than 25 nephelometric turbidity units (10 NTU for trout streams) a separate violation for each day it continues, in addition to the underlying permit violation.

Enforcement under § 38-31 escalates by offense: the director issues a written warning for a first or second violation, giving the violator five days to correct it before a stop-work order follows; a third violation draws an immediate stop-work order with no warning period, and any violation involving an imminent threat to public health or state waters, or work done without a permit at all, triggers an immediate stop-work order regardless of violation count.