UMC is the California State Code and has been adopted by other cities and jurisdictions in the U.S. with and without amendments. The current edition of UMC is 2003. The next planned edition will be 2006.

The UMC has been published by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) since the year 2000. Prior to that (until 1997), the UMC was published jointly by IAPMO and ICBO (recently merged to form ICC).

As a reference, the IMC was first published in the year 2000 by the ICC or International Code Council.

UMC revision is on a 3 year cycle, which is similar to the revision cycle of NFPA-96. The code development (revision) process for UMC is very similar to that for NFPA-96 and IMC. It follows NFPA very closely. Code action consists of the following steps:

(1) Call for Proposal (code revisions)
(2) Review of proposals by UMC Technical Committee (TC)
(3) Report publication of Proposals (ROP)
(4) Call for ROP comments
(5) TC review of comments
(6) Report of Comments (ROC) publication
(7) Vote on the ROP & ROC by IAPMO members at annual conference
(8) Appeals and hearings by IAPMO Standards Council, and issuance of the revised code (document) by the Council
(9) January re-printing of the document in 2006
(10) Publication of ANSI approved UMC in spring of 2006

The current (2003) UMC revision cycle began in October 2003 and is near the end of that cycle. During this cycle, only 3 changes were proposed that affect CKV requirements in UMC.

The ROC is expected in the middle of August, 2005. There are two steps before the 2006 UMC is published early next year. A vote on the ROP & ROC by IAPMO members at the IAPMO annual conference/technical convention on September 27, 2005 in Albuquerque, NM. Issuance of the document by IAPMO Standards Council during its November 16-18, 2005 meeting.

The next full UMC revision cycle for 2009 will begin in late 2006. The Code Change Form for that cycle will be available from IAPMO after the 2006 UMC has been published next year.