An agreement to allow the installation of CPVC pipe in residential structures on a limited basis in California will be voted on Nov. 14.

An agreement to allow the installation of CPVC pipe in residential structures on a limited basis in California will be voted on this month. The deal, which was reached this summer, allows local building code officials to approve CPVC pipe if they can prove metallic pipe is failing or could fail as a result of local water conditions.

The agreement is scheduled for a vote Nov. 14 by members of the California Building Standards Commission. If approved by the commission, the agreement would settle a lawsuit filed in the last week of 1998 to stop the statewide use of CPVC. The California Pipe Trades Council and other contractor and industry groups filed the suit.

"This agreement does not allow the statewide use of CPVC," said Daniel Cardozo, attorney for the pipe trades council. "In any case where a local building official finds that metallic pipe is failing or could fail based on water conditions in a given area, this agreement allows the local codes to be amended to allow the use of CPVC."

Local use of CPVC would be subject to a number of restrictions and mitigation measures that are detailed in the agreement.

The agreement will be up for approval on an emergency basis at the Nov. 14 meeting, said Stan Nishimura, the commission's executive director. If approved the agreement should take effect once it is filed with the secretary of state's office.

The commission has a total of 11 members, but four of those seats remain empty pending appointments to be made by Gov. Gray Davis. The agreement needs six of the seven voting members on the commission to approve the agreement for it to pass.