This is a copy of the letter Jim Healy sent to Georgia legislators concerning the very restrictive anchoring regulations recently passed and enacted. See Call to Action.

Dear Georgia Legislators:

My wife and I have lived full time on our boat for 16 years. We winter in the US Southeast (Georgia, Florida) and summer in the Northeast (Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, New York Canal System, New England). Twice annually we transit Georgia’s magnificent coastal estuarine waters. We thoroughly enjoy anchoring in the peace and quiet of remote Georgia coastal venues. We also stop at many Georgia marinas (Savannah, Thunderbolt, Isle-of-Hope, Skidaway Island, Richmond Hill, Darien, Brunswick) to wait out weather and take advantage of local restaurant and provisioning services. We work hard to comply with all US and Georgia navigation and maritime laws, and we comply with the provisions of the US Clean Waters Act of 1972. We do NOT discharge waste in any waters, at any time, anywhere.

I am writing to request that you support Georgia HB833 on behalf of all Georgians and all Americans. We believe HB833 corrects several serious flaws with its predecessor legislation, HB201, as adopted by the legislature in 2019. If HB201 is not corrected, we will simply not be able to enjoy the beauty of Georgia’s coastal waters as we have previously. Following are the flaws we find with HB201:

1. Georgia estuarine waters overlie Public Trust lands. HB201 has the effect of an “administrative taking” of Public Trust lands; in as much, it disregards and disrespects the Public Trust Doctrine that the Georgia legislature is responsible to protect in the interest of all Georgians and all Americans. This effectively denies the right of navigation and anchorage to all boaters who make every effort to comply with maritime law and regulation.
2. The regulations adopted by Georgia DNR establish a 1000 foot setback from public and private shore-side structures. That setback is grossly excessive and unnecessary. A 1000 foot setback effectively closes many weather-safe anchorages, many located in creeks that are only 500 feet wide from shore to shore. That excessive setback has the effect of transferring control and ownership rights of littoral, submerged, Public Trust lands to wealthy waterfront landowners who have no such rights in law over Public Trust lands. The way the Georgia DNR regulations are written, proliferation of shore-side structures would have the effect of taking proportionally more and more Public Trust lands out of public access and use.
3. There is no demonstrable EVIDENCE of actual violations of the US Clean Waters Act by cruising boats anchored in Georgia’s estuarine waters. Unproved accusation, speculation and innuendo to the contrary by those with personal-interest motives does not justify the taking of these Public Trust lands from public access and use. Publicly available evidence is that under-designed municipal water treatment facilities, poor agricultural practice and failed private septic systems create vastly more fecal coliform pollution than cruising boats could produce even if they all violated existing US law.
4. It is not reasonable to deny anchoring rights to many hundreds of users that are entirely in compliance with US and Georgia navigation and sanitation laws simply because there might be an occasional violator.
5. Enforcement of these excessive DNR regulations is a significant law enforcement staffing and budgetary burden which will lead to spotty, unequal and discriminatory enforcement .

In all of the above areas, legislative controls and agency regulations must target actual violators. I strongly urge that you support the proposed HB833.

Very respectfully,

James B. Healy

Peg and Jim Healy, living aboard Sanctuary
Monk 36 Hull #132

With this Call to Action, BoatUS has taken up the cause of boaters urging the repeal of an extremely restrictive anchoring law recently enacted by the Georgia legislature. See Save Georgia’s Anchorages.

February 6, 2020

Take Action 

Dear BoatU.S. Members:

We need your help to send a message to the state of Georgia regarding a new anchoring regulation that places a significant restriction on your freedom to enjoy the state’s waters. Under a new rule, boats cannot anchor overnight within 1,000 feet of any shore side structure. This rule eliminates a vast portion of Georgia’s coastal waters from a traditional use, effectively taking this shared resource away from many boaters. Please email the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) requesting they repeal this onerous rule and work with the boating community to come up with commonsense anchoring regulations. Click here to send your message: Take Action 

This new rule was created in response to legislation, Georgia House Bill 201, passed early last year with little notice or engagement of the boating community. This legislation directed DNR to establish anchoring regulations, establish anchorage areas and prohibited overnight anchoring of boats outside of these designated anchorages. DNR did engage in a public process to develop these rules  and then finalized them on December 30th of 2019. (You can see BoatU.S. comments here.)

Specifically, the rule restricts overnight anchoring within 1,000 feet of any structure, such as public and private docks, wharves, bridges, piers and pilings, except in areas near marinas. This 1,000-foot offset needlessly eliminates anchorages all over the state. It will affect numerous boaters, many of whom transit Georgia waters as part of the annual migration along the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) that brings in millions of dollars to Georgia businesses. There is no reasonable safety or waterway-management reason for taking such a significant swath of state waters from the boating public.

Curiously, DNR did create so-called “Marina Zones” that allow boaters to anchor as close as 300 feet to marinas or facilities that provide fuel, dinghy access, provisions, vessel maintenance or other services, regardless of whether other structures exist nearby. This can only lead to the conclusion that the reason for the greater offset from private structures outside these zones was to provide waterfront landowners with near exclusive use and enjoyment of our shared waterways

BoatU.S. recognizes the need for states to manage their waterways and supports reasonable regulations that protect the public’s access. We also firmly believe the ability to anchor overnight is an important part of how many boater choose to enjoy the water. Please send a message today asking to repeal this rule. Take Action 

Contact BoatU.S. Government Affairs at GovtAffairs@BoatUS.com if you have additional questions.

Thank you for being a BoatU.S. Member!

David B. Kennedy
BoatU.S. Government Affairs
GovtAffairs@BoatUS.com
703-461-2878 x8363
Advocacy.BoatUS.com

Our thanks to Wally Moran for sharing this article from Save Georgia’s Anchorages and to James H. Newsome, Ted Arisaka and others who are working diligently to correct a bad piece of legislation. See Anchoring Restrictions.

Hello Larry – hope all is well out your way. Some news for you – a Georgia rep has brought up a new bill on anchoring, as he had promised us he would do.
It’s not everything, but it’s a big step in the right direction and most importantly, it takes the setback and codifies it, meaning the DNR can’t just change it. Still, there’s lots to do to make this happen, such as co-sponsors and a companion bill in the Senate. We’ll be looking for a big push from everyone soon to encourage letter writing and phone calls in support of these goals.
Boat US will be weighing in next week btw. Stay tuned, one of us from SGA will be sure you get the message as soon as we can.

Here’s a press release for your readers –
Some great news about Georgia’s anchoring situation – which is posted on Save Georgia’s Anchorages by James H. Newsome, who along with Jack White have done some amazing work to protect our rights to anchor. This bill will need a lot of support to get it through – we’ll be counting on our fellow boaters to make this happen.

Rep. Ron Stephens has submitted HB833 in the GA General Assembly. Rep Ron Stephens has been working with SGA and other boating stakeholders and groups to negotiate with DNR about the rules and regulations of HB201 which passed during the last session of the General Assembly.

It appears that HB833 will fix the primary issues with the previous law. In particular, setback distances will be written into law and the power to set them taken away from DNR. The definition of ‘anchoring area’ has been corrected. Also, the entire state’s waters will no longer be declared illegal to anchor in unless DNR gives permission. This is a major achievement.

It’s early in this game, but HB833 appears to have a great deal of promise. But we will need the help of every concerned boater to make it a reality, with emails and phone support. Here’s the link: http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/en-US/display/20192020/HB/833?fbclid=IwAR1nPksFnSLTOHJBTB9R0eUWpJ6RV2DQNLx6-fzxM4EWKzO7Cxua4faBMrs

Join us at Save Georgia’s Anchorages and learn what you can do to help protect Georgia’s anchorages for boaters, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/SaveGeorgiasAnchorages/