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ELKINS – Some Elkins residents were confused when they received a letter this week regarding contamimants in city water. Though many found the letter to be vague, an Elkins city official told The Inter-Mountain Thursday that the city’s water is safe and there is no reason for alarm.
In the letter, the Elkins Water Division announced customers can access unregulated contaminants results from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study conducted nationwide from 2023 to 2025.
The letter stated that the city’s water system was “sampled for a series of unregulated contaminants.” According to the letter, “unregulated contaminants” do not yet have a drinking water standard set by the EPA, and the purpose of monitoring for these contaminants is to help EPA decide whether the selected contaminants should have a federal drinking-water standards.
The letter states that customers of the Elkins Water Division have a right to know this data is available and that it can be accessed by contacting the Elkins Water Division at 681-298-5201 or by visiting Elkins City Hall, which will re-open for utility services on Monday. The results can also be accessed on the City of Elkins’ website.
Public Water System Chief Operator and Manager Wes Lambert told The Inter-Mountain Thursday that officials are more than willing to provide customers with the results.
“I’ve been emailing out sample results as people ask for them,” Lambert told The Inter-Mountain. “I don’t mind at all. If they want to see them, we’re happy to provide them. So they can either go down there to City Hall and look at a copy (of the results) or we’d be glad to send it to them, either way.”
Lambert also noted the letter the city mailed to water customers had been given out as a template by the EPA for every participating water system to use. Lambert admitted that the language in the letter was confusing, but said that was the information the EPA wanted to be released, and that it was out of city officials’ hands.
A city social media post has stated that the letters were sent out to inform customers they could access the EPA’s results and was not meant to imply that the Elkins Water Division has unsafe water.
“None of the chemicals listed in this report was found at or above the program's minimum reporting level,” the post states. “That does not necessarily mean they were entirely absent; smaller amounts would not be shown as measured results… The notice below was to inform customers that the results are available. It is not a warning that the water is unsafe.”
Lambert confirmed this with The Inter-Mountain Thursday, explaining that every one of the water samples sent to the EPA by the Elkins Water Division came back “below the detection level.”
“So we didn’t have any hits,” Lambert said. “I’m not aware of any (water) system in this area that had hits… We haven’t had any hits in the last couple rounds of that. We did the UCMR 4 sampling back in 2018, 2019… and I don’t believe we had any hits on anything then either. Like I said, it’s just kind of an exploratory sampling that the EPA puts forth just to see if they need to start requiring (water) systems to do regular routine monitoring for any type of containment or anything.”
When asked if customers had anything to be concerned about, Lambert said “not at this time.” He went on to explain that, if the samples had come back with hits for the unspecified contaminants, the EPA would have directed the Elkins Water Division to notify the public and begin regular monitoring for the specific contaminant found.
A City of Elkins press release explains that the Elkins Water Division had been a part of an EPA-mandated nationwide program called Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) and the unregulated contaminants results were from that program. The EPA required public water systems throughout the country that serve 3,300 or more people to participate and collect samples during the 2023-2025 monitoring period.
UCMR 5 required testing for 29 different PFAS, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and lithium. PFAS, according to the EPA, are widely used, long-lasting chemicals that break down very slowly over time. There are reportedly thousands of PFAS chemicals that can be found in consumer, commercial and industrial products.
“Because of their widespread use and their persistence in the environment, many PFAS are found in the blood of people and animals all over the world and are present at low levels in a variety of food products and in the environment,” the EPA’s website states. “PFAS are found in water, air, fish and soil at locations across the nation and the globe. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to some PFAS in the environment may be linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals.”
TBecause the EPA's ordered monitoring period for UCMR 5 ended in 2025, there are no UCMR 5 results for 2026. The EPA has proposed UCMR 6 as the next round of this nationwide program, with sample collection proposed for 2028 through 2030. Lambert said the EPA usually conducts this program every three to five years.
The City of Elkins press release notes, however, that although there are no UCMR 5 results for 2026, that does not mean Elkins stopped testing its drinking water in 2026.
“The City of Elkins tests and monitors its drinking water on an ongoing basis as part of our commitment to providing safe, reliable drinking water to our customers,” according to the release. “Water treatment, monitoring, testing and maintenance of the distribution system take place all year, every year. The city also publishes an annual Consumer Confidence Report to provide customers with information about their drinking water and water-quality testing.”
The Elkins Water Board is scheduled to meet on Oct. 12 at 4 p.m.