A state panel voted Monday to allow unrestricted use of plastic water pipes in houses, a potential end to a quarter-century fight over requirements that builders use copper pipe, which acidic Inland soil and water can corrode.

"We've never been this close before. The state has taken a step forward to giving people the option of copper or plastic," said Jeff Cash of Noveon, a company that produces the resin used in plastic pipe made from chlorinated polyvinyl chloride, or CPVC.

Acidic soil and water have been blamed for eating away traditional copper water piping in hundreds of Inland homes, forcing expensive repairs. Lawmakers and others from the region have long tried to ease state rules on the use of plastic pipe as a corrosion-free alternative. Plastic pipe costs several thousand dollars less in a typical home than copper piping.