PFAS Drinking Water, Diesel Tax Relief, and Ohio Utility Rules

New Jersey lawmakers filed a bill requiring the state's Department of Environmental Protection to set drinking-water limits for PFAS chemicals, the federal government published an executive order on diesel fuel tax relief, and Ohio's utility regulator amended a rule on gas utility customer billing and payments. Collection day brought 364 items across 12 states and the federal government, a little above the combined trailing weekday average of about 295 across record types.

Why it matters: New Jersey's environmental agency, gas utility customers in Ohio, and Michigan-licensed veterinary technicians all have new or pending requirements to track from the day's filings.

What moved

• Requires DEP to establish maximum contaminant level for certain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water and establish private well testing program. (S4468), New Jersey. The bill would require the Department of Environmental Protection to set maximum contaminant levels for several PFAS compounds within 12 months, aligned with federal drinking-water standards, and to create a private well testing program with financial assistance for testing and remediation, funded through a dedicated account and backed by annual reporting to the Governor and Legislature. Status: Introduced, referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee; next step is committee or floor action in the chamber of origin.

• Emergency Tax Relief on Diesel Fuel, federal. An executive order on diesel fuel tax relief was published in the Federal Register on October 9. The summary notes it is an emergency relief measure; the pipeline's record does not include the order's substantive terms, which are available in the full Federal Register text.

• 4901:1-13-11 Gas or natural gas company customer billing and payments, Ohio. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio amended this rule, effective October 7, setting requirements for gas and natural gas company bill content, payment methods, electronic billing compliance, and handling of partial payments on nonconsolidated and consolidated bills.

• Veterinary Technician - General Rules, Michigan. The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs' Bureau of Professional Licensing approved draft rules covering licensing sections R 338.4971 through R 338.4993 for veterinary technicians. The summary states the Administrative Rules Division approved the rules on January 12, 2026, with a Regulatory Impact Statement received October 7, 2026, and lists the filing date and effective date as pending.

By the numbers

• Federal agencies entered 90 regulations, close to their trailing weekday average of about 82.
• The federal courts entered 125 court opinions, about twice their trailing weekday average of about 61.
• Federal bills totaled 6, nearly three times their trailing weekday average of about 2.
• States combined added 142 items across 12 states; Florida (40, all regulations), Virginia (31, all regulations), Ohio (22: 21 regulations and 1 opinion), Alaska (19, all regulations) and California (18, all opinions) were the largest state totals.
• Michigan logged 5 regulations, an unusually busy weekday for its agencies against a trailing weekday average of about 1 regulation.
• Wisconsin added no items to the record on a day its agencies typically produce about 7 on a weekday; its last appearance was October 7.

Bill actions

No tracked bill carried an action dated October 9 among tracked bills.

Methodology

"Collected" means the date the pipeline processed a record, not the date the source originally published or filed it. Counts are deduplicated processed records from OmniLegislation's own pipeline, and item descriptions come from the pipeline's own summaries of each record. Baselines are trailing 30 day daily averages for the same kind of day (weekend days against weekend days, weekdays against weekdays), excluding known bulk-load days; highest single-day counts are measured since tracking began on April 5, 2026, and include load days, which are labelled. Bill actions cover tracked bills only. This report covers October 9, 2026. Bill records originate from LegiScan; court opinions from CourtListener, a Free Law Project service; federal regulations from the Federal Register.