Committee reports bill to restrict wheeled vehicles in stream beds after sponsor cites property damage

Senate Bill 171, sponsored by Senator Chambliss, was reported favorably by the committee after discussion about off-road vehicles using stream beds and damaging private property.

“We're having a problem in my area and we've had it for a while…side by sides and 4 wheelers and utility type vehicles that are going up and down our stream beds,” Senator Chambliss said. He described people entering private property, leaving litter and creating environmental damage. “The problem is a navigable waterway is considered a public right of way just like a road... That law was written, we didn't have all these vehicles… now there's a whole different purpose,” he said.

Chambliss said the bill tries to leave the law on navigability intact while authorizing citation of vehicles not designed for water conveyance. “So this bill tries to thread the needle of leaving the navigability issue as it is, but if these vehicles are not made for that, they would be able to be subject to citation,” he said.

Committee members asked how the law would be enforced, whether signage or permits would be required and whether licensed drivers were distinguishable from unlicensed drivers in these groups. Senator Chambliss said enforcement would begin when landowners call law enforcement, and officers would issue warnings or citations as appropriate; he also said existing amphibious watercraft designed for transportation would be excluded by the bill’s language.

Senator Albritton raised concerns that amphibious vehicles, duck boat tours or other specialty watercraft differ from dirt bikes and quads and that the bill’s language needed to ensure watercraft designed for transportation are not captured. The sponsor pointed to the bill's language excluding “a vessel or other watercraft designed for transportation on water.”

Senator Chambliss moved a favorable report; Senator Albritton seconded. The committee reported the bill favorably.