1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to an exemption to the licensing requirements for

 1-3     irrigators.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 34.002(a), Water Code, is amended to read

 1-6     as follows:

 1-7           (a)  The licensure requirements of this chapter do not apply

 1-8     to:

 1-9                 (1)  any person licensed by the Texas State Board of

1-10     Plumbing Examiners;

1-11                 (2)  a registered professional engineer or architect or

1-12     landscape architect if his or her acts are incidental to the

1-13     pursuit of his or her profession;

1-14                 (3)  irrigation or yard sprinkler work done by a

1-15     property owner in a building or on premises owned or occupied by

1-16     him or her as his or her home;

1-17                 (4)  irrigation or yard sprinkler repair work, other

1-18     than extension of an existing irrigation or yard sprinkler system

1-19     or installation of a replacement system, done by a maintenance

1-20     person incidental to and on premises owned by the business in which

1-21     he or she is regularly employed or engaged and who does not engage

1-22     in the occupation of licensed irrigator or in yard sprinkler

1-23     construction or maintenance for the general public;

1-24                 (5)  irrigation or yard sprinkler work done on the

 2-1     premises or equipment of a railroad by a regular employee of the

 2-2     railroad who does not engage in the occupation of licensed

 2-3     irrigator or in yard sprinkler construction or maintenance for the

 2-4     general public;

 2-5                 (6)  irrigation and yard sprinkler work done by a

 2-6     person who is regularly employed by a county, city, town, special

 2-7     district, or political subdivision of the state on public property;

 2-8                 (7)  a garden hose, hose sprinkler, hose-end product,

 2-9     soaker hose, or agricultural irrigation system;

2-10                 (8)  a portable or solid set or other type of

2-11     commercial agricultural irrigation system; [or]

2-12                 (9)  irrigation or yard sprinkler work done by an

2-13     agriculturist, agronomist, horticulturist, forester, gardener,

2-14     contract gardener, garden or lawn caretaker, nurseryman, or grader

2-15     or cultivator of land on land owned by himself or herself; or

2-16                 (10)  irrigation or yard sprinkler work done by a

2-17     member of a property owners' association as defined by Section

2-18     202.001, Property Code, on real property owned by the association

2-19     or in common by the members of the association if the irrigation or

2-20     yard sprinkler system waters real property that:

2-21                       (A)  is less than one-half acre in size; and

2-22                       (B)  is used for:

2-23                             (i)  aesthetic purposes; or

2-24                             (ii)  recreational purposes.

2-25           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-26     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-27     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 3-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 3-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 3-3     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 3-4     passage, and it is so enacted.

         _______________________________     _______________________________

             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 328 was passed by the House on May

         16, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 141, Nays 0, 2 present, not

         voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.

         No. 328 on May 28, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 135, Nays 0,

         1 present, not voting.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Chief Clerk of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 328 was passed by the Senate, with

         amendments, on May 24, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 28, Nays

         2.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Secretary of the Senate

         APPROVED:  _____________________

                            Date

                    _____________________

                          Governor