Revisit the CERCLA hazardous substance designation for PFAS

Research notes

• Moved from attempted to not started in a consistency review, as action that moved the other way. The Mandate’s verb is “revisit” and the action recorded for this ask is rescind: EPA revisited and retained, and a court upheld the rule, so the review closed against the ask. Calling that attempted would tell a reader the administration moved toward undoing PFAS liability when it did the opposite; the two Primary documents now sit on the not started event so the page shows what happened instead.
• No CERCLA §102(a) framework rule was found on the Federal Register by 2026-08-27 (API search “hazardous substance” designation CERCLA 102(a) framework: nothing). The 2026-05-20 PFAS proposals (rescinding regulatory determinations for four PFAS; extending the PFOA/PFOS MCL deadline) are Safe Drinking Water Act actions, not CERCLA.
• Bill lead: Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act, H.R. 1267 (introduced 2025-02-12, referred) — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hr1267/html/BILLS-119hr1267.htm (not read).
• EPA’s full regulatory agenda, searched 2026-09-01. We read EPA’s entire Unified Agenda on reginfo.gov (214 entries across the active, long-term and completed stages), because the Federal Register prints only the entries that need a Regulatory Flexibility analysis and the 2026-08-27 negatives were taken from that shortened version. The framework rule the 2026-08-27 note looked for and could not find on the Federal Register is on the agenda: RIN 2050-AH46, CERCLA Section 102(a) Framework Rule (EPA/OLEM, Long-Term Actions, first-time entry, 40 CFR part 302, NPRM 10/2027, final rule 02/2030): https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202510&RIN=2050-AH46. Its abstract says the rule “will provide a uniform approach to guide future hazardous substance designations, including how the EPA will consider the costs of proposed designations”. That is the promise EPA made in the 2025-09-17 release already cited, and it is prospective: it does not revisit the PFOA and PFOS designation, which EPA has said it will keep and which the D.C. Circuit upheld on 2026-08-18. An agenda entry in the ask’s subject area that does not name its object leaves the ask not started, so it is recorded here and the Status stays not started. RIN 2050-AH25, Addressing PFAS in the Environment (Long-Term Actions, 40 CFR 302.4) is the 2023 ANPRM on designating additional PFAS and points the same way.