Texas Backflow Prevention Assembly Tester (BPAT) License: TCEQ course, exam, fees and renewal
How do you get a backflow tester license in Texas?
You need a high school diploma or GED and two years of work experience in an approved area such as public water system operation, irrigation system installation, or plumbing. You then complete a 40-hour TCEQ-approved training course, submit a TCEQ application with the $111 fee and a criminal history attestation, and pass both a written exam at a computer-based testing center and a practical skills exam administered by your training provider. The license is valid for three years.
Texas requires anyone who tests or repairs the installation or operation of backflow prevention assemblies to hold a license from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The BPAT license is not part of the irrigator licensing stack: it is its own credential, with its own training course, its own exam structure and its own CE requirements. An irrigation crew that installs systems under a Landscape Irrigator license and also wants to run backflow tests needs this license in addition, not instead.
Who is telling you this, and why: Fieldwynn is a field-service app for small lawn and landscape crews, we are building it, and it has not launched. The next step at the foot of this page is an early-access email ask, not a purchase. Read the page as a funnel rather than a disinterested verdict. The TCEQ figures below are quoted from the agency’s pages and linked back to them, which is the part that holds whoever ends up running your route.
What the BPAT license lets you do
TCEQ states that BPAT holders are qualified to test and repair assemblies on any domestic, commercial, industrial, or irrigation service. That scope covers testing backflow prevention assemblies and repairing them when a test fails.
One restriction: a BPAT license holder may test and repair fire line assemblies only if permanently employed by an Approved Fireline Contractor. A solo tester picking up fire-line work on the side does not qualify under that rule.
The BPAT license does not authorize selling, designing, installing, maintaining or servicing an irrigation system. Those activities require a Landscape Irrigator or Irrigation Technician license from TCEQ, which the Texas landscape irrigator license guide covers. The two licenses serve different sides of the same water connection: the irrigator installs the system, the BPAT tester confirms the assembly that protects the public supply from backflow.
The training course
TCEQ requires the 40-hour Backflow Prevention Assembly Tester training course from a TCEQ-approved training provider. The course is listed as course code 1200, Backflow Prevention Assembly Tester with Practical Skills. Only one course is required for the new license: there are no elective hours and no prerequisite courses.
TCEQ does not publish the course tuition on its licensing or training pages. Each approved provider sets its own price, so the cost varies. TCEQ does publish the list of approved training providers and a search tool to find courses by type and region.
Education and experience
TCEQ requires a high school diploma or General Equivalence Diploma (GED) and two years of experience in an approved area. The approved areas are:
- Operating or maintaining a public drinking water system
- Installing or repairing residential, commercial, or industrial drinking water treatment equipment
- Installing or repairing lawn irrigation systems
- Performing activities that require a master or journeyman plumbing license
- Installing or servicing fire suppression sprinkler systems and lines
- Operating or maintaining a domestic wastewater treatment facility
- Performing health inspections that require a registered sanitarian
- Performing duties approved by the executive director
Applicants may substitute up to one year of experience with one year of college credit (32 semester hours) or 20 hours of approved training, in addition to the required 40-hour course. That substitution covers at most one of the two required years, so at least one year of approved-area work experience is needed regardless.
Application and fees
You apply through the Online Licensing Application (OLEA) after completing the training course. The application requires:
- A completed TCEQ application
- A criminal history attestation
- The $111 application fee
Application processing time is approximately three to four weeks barring deficiencies, the same window TCEQ gives for its other occupational licenses.
The two-part exam
The BPAT exam has two parts, taken separately, and each is administered by a different entity:
- Written exam. Taken at a TCEQ-approved computer-based testing center. You schedule the written exam after your application is approved. TCEQ does not publish the testing center’s exam fee; the center sets that price separately from the $111 application fee you already paid.
- Practical skills exam. The practical skills portion is administered by the training provider, not by the testing center.
Both parts must be passed. TCEQ’s BPAT page does not state a passing score for either portion; the irrigator licensing page states a minimum score of 70 percent for each section for irrigator exams, but that figure is not repeated on the BPAT page, so this guide does not print one. Confirm the pass mark with TCEQ or your testing center before sitting.
The three-year term and 24 CE hours
The BPAT license, like all TCEQ occupational licenses, is valid for three years. Renewal requires:
- 24 hours of continuing education, of which 8 must be practical skills (hands-on) training
- A renewal application
- A criminal history attestation
- The $111 renewal fee if submitted on or before the expiration date
CE hours must be completed before the license expires. Failure to complete the required CE hours by the expiration date results in denial of the renewal application regardless of when the application is submitted, including during the late-renewal grace period. Self-paced and correspondence courses may not be repeated for CE credit in the same renewal period.
| When you submit | Renewal fee | May you keep working? |
|---|---|---|
| On or before the expiration date | $111 | Yes, the license is current |
| 1 to 90 days after expiration | $166.50 (1.5 times the normal fee) | Yes, if your renewal application and fee are submitted within 90 days |
| 91 to 180 days after expiration | $222 (2 times the normal fee) | No, not until the license is renewed or re-issued |
| More than 180 days after expiration | Cannot renew: new application, new exam | No |
The 180-day late-renewal window comes from House Bill 1237, effective September 1, 2025. A person who submits a renewal within 90 days of expiry may continue performing backflow testing until the license is renewed or denied; after 90 days without a submitted renewal, you may not test or repair assemblies until the license is restored. After 180 days the license cannot be renewed at all, and you must start over with a new application, new training and a new exam.
TCEQ mails a courtesy renewal notification at least 60 days before expiry and sends a courtesy email notification 90 days before expiry when it holds a valid address, but those are courtesies, not legal notice, and missing them does not extend the deadline. Keep your mailing address current with the Austin central office: TCEQ requires notification within 10 days of any address change for all occupational license holders.
One exception to the renewal clock: a licensee who was unable to renew because of active military duty outside Texas may renew within two years (730 days) of returning, with the CE requirement waived for the renewal cycle spent on active duty.
Where the BPAT sits alongside the irrigator licenses
TCEQ issues several occupational licenses that touch irrigation and water-supply work. The BPAT is the one for testing and repairing the assembly. The irrigator licensing page names three others for the system behind it:
- Landscape Irrigator: sells, designs, installs, maintains, alters, repairs and services irrigation systems including the water-supply connection
- Irrigation Technician: connects the system to the water supply, installs backflow prevention devices, and maintains, repairs and services under the supervision of a licensed irrigator
- Irrigation Inspector: verifies permits, inspects the system for rule compliance and the correct backflow prevention device, and provides test results to the water purveyor
The two credentials cover different acts: the irrigator installs the device, the BPAT tester tests and repairs it. The backflow testing pricing calculator prices a testing visit per assembly with the filing fee as a pass-through and a re-test line; the irrigation repair and start-up pricing calculator prices the spring start-up that often surfaces a failed assembly; and the irrigation winterization and blowout calculator prices the shutdown at the other end of the season. If you carry the plumbing work order template, the backflow test and repair detail fits a service-call documentation workflow.
From a license to a route
The BPAT license opens a service line that pairs with irrigation installation: the testing and repair of backflow prevention assemblies on the connections your crew installs. Pricing the test means knowing your drive time, your per-assembly testing time, and whether you bundle a re-test or a repair, which is what the backflow testing pricing calculator does. Scheduling it means knowing when each client’s assembly is due for testing, which is where Fieldwynn is headed: a field-service app built to carry certification renewal dates, assembly test schedules and the route itself for a small crew. It has not launched, so the next step below is an early-access email ask, and the calculators and the licensing facts stay free either way.