How Texas Flushed Out Plumbers

The state is mopping up its own mess after failing to reauthorize a licensing board

- David Wethe

In May, this year’s session of the Texas legislature ended in chaotic fashion with a confusing series of late-night votes. After the gavel fell, lawmakers— who meet only once every two years in a state resistant to the trammels of politics— realized they’d failed to renew the law authorizing the State Board of Plumbing Examiners. Created in 1947 to ensure clean and safe water for the Lone Star State, the plumbers’ licensing board has been a powerful authority. Every aspiring plumber has needed to make a pilgrimage to Austin to win the right to practice. Suddenly, flood the market with unqualified people,” says Scott Gomez of Houston, whose father and brothers are also plumbers. “I can see a lot of bad things happening,” including contamination of the water supply and flooded houses.