Georgia is under a statewide drought declaration — and the watering law beats your covenant
Georgia is under a statewide drought declaration — and the watering law beats your covenant
2026-09-10 · Georgia · Regulation
What is happening. On 27 April 2026, the Director of Georgia's Environmental Protection Division declared a statewide Drought Response Level 1 for public water systems using surface water, groundwater or both. As of EPD's most recent reporting on 14 August 2026, Level 1 remains the current status; no Level 2 or higher has been declared in 2026.1
What Level 1 actually does
Less than most people assume, and it is worth being precise because Georgia boards over-read it every time.
Level 1 does not restrict landscape irrigation, vehicle washing, pressure washing or ornamental water features. In EPD's own words: “Outdoor water use between the hours of 4 P.M. and 10 A.M. is still allowable and unaffected by a Drought Response Level 1.”
What it requires is that public water systems “implement a public information campaign including, at a minimum, notice regarding drought conditions and drought-specific announcements.”
The rule underneath, which never goes away
This is the one Georgia associations most often get wrong. Under the Georgia Water Stewardship Act of 2010, landscape irrigation of established lawns and plants is permitted only between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m., year-round, statewide — drought or no drought.2
It is not a drought measure. It is the standing law, and it applies to the association's own common-area irrigation exactly as it applies to a homeowner's lawn.
Where this collides with a covenant
Directly, and the answer is not in doubt. A Georgia declaration that requires green turf, or a landscaping specification that assumes midday watering, or a management contract scheduling irrigation for 11 a.m., does not override a state statute.
Two practical consequences for a Georgia board:
- The association is a water customer like any other. An association running common-area irrigation outside the window is in breach, whatever its landscape contract says.
- Enforcing a turf covenant against an owner has a limit. An owner who cannot keep grass green while watering only between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m. is complying with state law. A fine for the resulting condition is a fine for obeying a statute.
The wrinkle nobody covers
Public water systems may not impose outdoor watering restrictions different from the state requirements unless they obtain a variance from EPD. A system seeking a more or less stringent rule must show good cause, and EPD must act within five business days.3
So a Georgia board told “our county has different watering rules” should ask whether the county holds an EPD variance. Many purported local rules are simply wrong — and a manager enforcing one against owners is enforcing nothing.
What a board can do this autumn
- Audit the irrigation controllers. Not the contract — the controllers. Common-area systems set years ago on a morning schedule frequently run past 10 a.m., and nobody notices because nobody is on site.
- Check the landscape contract's watering clause. If it specifies times outside the window, it specifies unlawful performance.
- Verify any claimed local rule. Ask the water system whether it holds an EPD variance. If it does not, the state schedule is the rule.
- Review turf covenants for realism. A covenant that effectively requires more water than the law allows is a covenant that will generate disputes an association cannot win cleanly.
- Watch for a Level 2 declaration. If EPD escalates, outdoor watering restrictions tighten and monthly reporting begins for water systems. That is the trigger to revisit landscape budgets before the 2027 growing season.
The exceptions worth knowing
The 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. window applies to irrigation of established lawns and plants. Georgia's outdoor water use rules carry a set of exceptions that associations routinely fail to invoke — among them newly installed landscape during an establishment period, hand watering, drip irrigation, and irrigation of personal food gardens.
The practical point for a board is that a newly landscaped common area is not in the same position as an established one. An association reseeding an entrance or replanting after construction should establish which exception applies and document it, rather than either watering unlawfully or letting the planting fail.
How this interacts with the new statute
Georgia's Chapter 43-17A says nothing about water, landscaping or covenants. But three provisions taking effect 1 January 2027 change the enforcement arithmetic around a turf dispute, and the connection is direct.4
Fines will not reach the courthouse. Under the amended § 44-3-232(c), “no specific assessment… or other fine or fee shall be included in the calculation” of the lien amount for foreclosure purposes — and “specific assessments” is defined at § 43-17A-1(10) to include fines for violation of a covenant. Landscaping fines simply do not count toward the threshold.
Fines are paid last. Section 43-17A-8(a) requires owner payments to be applied to regular assessments first and “other fees and fines” last.
An owner can freeze collection by complaining. Section 43-17A-5 lets any person residing in the development complain to the Secretary of State within 180 days, and the filing acts as an automatic stay on collecting the disputed fines and fees.
A Georgia association contemplating a fining campaign over brown lawns should hold those three facts alongside a fourth: the owner's likely answer is that they watered when the law allowed.
The reserve angle
Less obvious, and worth a line in the 2027 budget discussion. Irrigation systems, ponds and landscape installations are reserve components. Georgia has no statutory reserve requirement — but from 4 January 2027, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require condominium projects to fund reserves at 15% of budgeted assessment income, or at the highest recommended allocation in a current reserve study, with the baseline funding method no longer acceptable from 3 August 2026.
An association replacing an irrigation system to a tighter watering window — more zones, better controllers, drip conversion — is making a reserve expenditure at exactly the moment the funding standard has risen.
What to watch next
EPD's drought status through the autumn. Level 1 is an information obligation; Level 2 is the first level that restricts outdoor water use, and it would land on Georgia associations as a landscape-contract problem and a covenant-enforcement problem simultaneously. The status page is the thing to check, not the news.
Related Georgia HOA Topics
- “Level 1 Drought Declared” — Georgia Environmental Protection Division, 27 April 2026 ↩
- Non-drought Outdoor Water Use Schedule — Georgia EPD ↩
- Drought Management (current status and variance procedure) — Georgia EPD ↩
- Senate Bill 406, as passed (26 LC 49 2879S) — signed copy, Office of the Governor ↩
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