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

Section 14-38 of the DeKalb County Code covers soil erosion and sedimentation control. Every permitted land-disturbing activity must follow the Georgia Erosion and Sedimentation Act of 1975, Chapter 14, and the conditions the development director writes into the permit. The county can adopt requirements stricter than the state minimum, and the Manual for Erosion and Sediment Control in Georgia is incorporated by reference into the chapter.

The permit rule has exemptions, and the code lists them. Surface mining, granite quarrying, home gardens and minor landscaping, agriculture, forestry, Natural Resources Conservation Service projects, state and county road work and certain utility work are outside the section. A single-family residence that disturbs less than one acre is exempt from the permit but still has to meet the minimum best management practices. A project under one acre loses its exemption if it sits inside a larger common plan of development or sale of one acre or more, or within 200 feet of the bank of any state waters.

An application goes to the development director with eight copies of the erosion, sedimentation and pollution control plan and a certification that the plan preparer visited the site first. The county charges a permitting fee for each acre or fraction of an acre, and the state fee under O.C.G.A. 12-5-23(a)(5) cannot exceed $80.00 per acre. The soil and water conservation district has 35 days to approve or disapprove the plan, and silence counts as approval. The director must grant or deny the permit within 45 days of a completed application. The county can require a bond of up to $3,000.00 per acre or fraction of an acre, and it can deny an applicant with two or more violations in the prior three years.

On the ground, the code requires a 25-foot undisturbed buffer along state waters and a 50-foot buffer along trout streams. A discharge that raises receiving-water turbidity by more than 25 nephelometric turbidity units, or more than 10 for trout waters, is a separate violation for each day. A site must also keep a certified person responsible for erosion control on site whenever land is being disturbed.