Committee adopts amendment removing motor-size cap and banning personal watercraft on an Ogeechee River stretch

Representative Ridley presented House Bill 1266 and an accompanying amendment to modernize a nearly 40-year-old restriction on motor size in a portion of the Ogeechee River. Ridley said the original 9.9-horsepower limit reflected older two-stroke motors, which operate differently than modern four-stroke engines. He told the committee the bill “strikes the language that currently sits in the bill, and we’re replacing, we’re taking the limit off of the motors and basically just putting in the personal watercraft as being banned in that stretch of the river.”

At the committee’s request, Ridley provided amendment language that would add a PWC ban to Section 52-7-8.2 while exempting law-enforcement craft. He read the proposed text: “With the exception of law enforcement crafts, no personal water crafts shall operate on the Okeechi River.” The chair noted the definition of a personal watercraft will be referenced in the bill.

Representative Klein asked whether the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had been consulted. The chair answered that the department had been contacted and that passage of this measure would eliminate the Ogeechee’s unique horsepower restriction so that, statewide, there would be no motor-size limits on public rivers where none currently exist.

The committee adopted Ridley’s amendment by voice vote and then voted to pass House Bill 1266 as amended. The transcript records the chair calling for ‘‘ayes’’ and concludes, “Measure passes,” with one member verbally recorded as opposed during a follow-up voice roll; no roll-call tally of individual names appears in the record.

Next steps: the bill was reported out of committee as amended.