ATLANTA - Even as the House affirmed its approval of a statewide water policy Monday, lawmakers proposed bills that would stymie the plan's perceived potential to divert water from other areas into metro Atlanta.

The chamber quickly scuttled on a 131-29 vote a parliamentary maneuver aimed at forcing the House to vote a second time on whether to approve the plan. While it had little chance of success, the "motion to reconsider" had the effect of slowing final approval of House Resolution 1022, which now awaits Senate passage and the signature of Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Republican leaders have agreed to give the upper chamber a shot at approving the House measure instead of trying to get an identical Senate resolution through the House, said House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons Island.

"If not, the House is more than willing to (pass the Senate legislation)," Keen said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers from across the state introduced measures that could restrict transfers of water from one river basin to another and legislation that would revamp regional councils expected to develop more detailed water plans.

Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, introduced a measure that would require certain conservation steps before those "interbasin transfers" take place. The same would apply to "intrabasin transfers," which allow water to be moved from one part of a river basin to another.

"I would like for there to be something similar to a checklist every time there's an interbasin or intrabasin transfer," Buckner said.

The water policy has similar standards, Buckner said, but the legal restrictions would be stronger.

Currently, interbasin transfers cannot move water into or out of a 16-county water district for metro Atlanta. But interbasin water transfers can occur outside the metro district or within the Atlanta area if both the receiving and sending locations are within the 16-county metro district.

And House Minority Leader DuBose Porter, D-Dublin, is set to introduce a measure that would redraw the water planning districts, which currently follow county lines that in some cases resemble, but do not mirror, river basins. Downstream communities and environmentalists believe that approach favors metro Atlanta, whose district would straddle the headwaters or important portions of five of the state's six major rivers.

Porter's bill would require that water planning, and the assessments of water availability that accompanies it, be done by river basins.

"We need to have that information to do a valid water planning policy for Georgia," Porter said.