New building standards.

Builders won some and lost some with the release of revised state building standards earlier this month.

After a 20-year fight, California homebuilders won the right to use cheaper plastic piping instead of copper.

But homebuilders and commercial builders in the state's coastal zones will have to shell out more to make structures more resistant to earthquakes and fires. The revised standards were adopted by the California Building Standards Commission on Feb. 2 and are set to go into effect by the end of this year.

Builders have long sought to use chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) pipes, which generally cost about one-fourth of copper. A coalition of environmental, consumer and labor groups opposed this, saying the pipes leached chemicals into the soil and glue used to bind segments emitted harmful fumes. Until now, the plastic pipes could only be used when it could be shown that copper pipes were failing prematurely.

But the Building Standards Commission also heard from environmentalists concerned about residue from copper piping leaching into water systems, especially in San Francisco Bay.

"We were discovering more and more issues with copper piping," said Dave Walls, the commission's executive director.

For more information on the building standards, log on to the commission's Web site at bsc.ca.gov.