The Daily Fuckup

The Environmental Protection Agency is back in public mode on PFAS, but the calendar matters. The agency said it will hold two identical webinars on August 11 and August 12, 2026, for its proposed Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, or UCMR 6. That proposal would require monitoring for 30 unregulated contaminants, including certain PFAS, and EPA says the webinars are part of the 60-day public comment period. ([epa.gov](https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces-new-action-make-america-healthy-again-collecting-data-advance-science))

That is not the same thing as the agency’s separate PFAS rescission rule. EPA proposed that action on May 18, 2026, to rescind regulatory determinations and regulations for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and hazard index mixtures of those three PFAS plus PFBS. The comment period for that proposal closed on July 20, 2026, and EPA held a virtual public hearing on July 7, 2026. ([epa.gov](https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/proposed-pfas-rescission-rule))

The distinction is more than bureaucratic. UCMR 6 is a monitoring rule. The rescission proposal is a direct effort to unwind part of the PFAS drinking-water framework that EPA finalized in April 2024, when it set legally enforceable limits for PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and certain PFAS mixtures. EPA’s own rescission page says the proposed rollback does not cover the full 2024 rule, but it would pull back standards for the four PFAS groups named in the proposal. ([epa.gov](https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/proposed-pfas-rescission-rule))

For water utilities, the split action means more moving parts, not fewer. The monitoring proposal could add more data on what is in the water supply, while the rescission fight raises a different question: which federal requirements will ultimately stick. EPA says the UCMR data will inform future drinking-water decisions and its PFAS outreach work, but the agency’s separate rescission proposal already signals a sharper rewrite of the last administration’s PFAS approach. ([epa.gov](https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces-new-action-make-america-healthy-again-collecting-data-advance-science))

That leaves states, utilities, and residents staring at another round of federal uncertainty. EPA is asking for comments on one PFAS-related proposal while another has already run its public-course gauntlet. The practical effect is the same one that has defined the PFAS debate for years: more testing, more legal churn, and more time before communities know which limits, if any, will govern the chemicals in their drinking water. ([epa.gov](https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces-new-action-make-america-healthy-again-collecting-data-advance-science))