1-1     By:  Kamel (Senate Sponsor - Brown)                    H.B. No. 328

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 16, 1997;

 1-3     May 16, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural

 1-4     Resources; May 18, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:

 1-5     Yeas 10, Nays 0; May 18, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to an exemption to the licensing requirements for

 1-9     irrigators.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 34.002(a), Water Code, is amended to read

1-12     as follows:

1-13           (a)  The licensure requirements of this chapter do not apply

1-14     to:

1-15                 (1)  any person licensed by the Texas State Board of

1-16     Plumbing Examiners;

1-17                 (2)  a registered professional engineer or architect or

1-18     landscape architect if his or her acts are incidental to the

1-19     pursuit of his or her profession;

1-20                 (3)  irrigation or yard sprinkler work done by a

1-21     property owner in a building or on premises owned or occupied by

1-22     him or her as his or her home;

1-23                 (4)  irrigation or yard sprinkler repair work, other

1-24     than extension of an existing irrigation or yard sprinkler system

1-25     or installation of a replacement system, done by a maintenance

1-26     person incidental to and on premises owned or managed by the

1-27     business in which he or she is regularly employed or engaged and

1-28     who does not engage in the occupation of licensed irrigator or in

1-29     yard sprinkler construction or maintenance for the general public;

1-30                 (5)  irrigation or yard sprinkler work done on the

1-31     premises or equipment of a railroad by a regular employee of the

1-32     railroad who does not engage in the occupation of licensed

1-33     irrigator or in yard sprinkler construction or maintenance for the

1-34     general public;

1-35                 (6)  irrigation and yard sprinkler work done by a

1-36     person who is regularly employed by a county, city, town, special

1-37     district, or political subdivision of the state on public property;

1-38                 (7)  a garden hose, hose sprinkler, hose-end product,

1-39     soaker hose, or agricultural irrigation system;

1-40                 (8)  a portable or solid set or other type of

1-41     commercial agricultural irrigation system; [or]

1-42                 (9)  irrigation or yard sprinkler work done by an

1-43     agriculturist, agronomist, horticulturist, forester, gardener,

1-44     contract gardener, garden or lawn caretaker, nurseryman, or grader

1-45     or cultivator of land on land owned by himself or herself; or

1-46                 (10)  irrigation or yard sprinkler work done by a

1-47     member of a property owners' association as defined by Section

1-48     202.001, Property Code, or by an employee of the association or its

1-49     managing agent, on real property owned by the association or in

1-50     common by the members of the association if the irrigation or yard

1-51     sprinkler system waters a portion of the real property that:

1-52                       (A)  is less than one-half acre in size; and

1-53                       (B)  is used for:

1-54                             (i)  aesthetic purposes; or

1-55                             (ii)  recreational purposes.

1-56           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-57     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-58     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-59     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-60     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-61     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-62     passage, and it is so enacted.

1-63                                  * * * * *