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Elk Meadows

What EPA’s and Pennsylvania’s records show in this utility’s water: PFAS; nitrate, arsenic and other regulated chemicals; lead and copper; and violations since 2016, with the certification that handles each result.

Serves
96 people
Connections
35
Water source
Groundwater
Based in
Union Dale, PA
County
Susquehanna
Owner
Private
The ZIP code it serves

18470

The short answer

1 result is above EPA’s legal limit, and 1 more is above the health goal. The worst: Lead, above the action level. 3 health-based violations since 2016.

What handles it

What was found

PFAS: Pennsylvania’s own results under its PFAS rule, entry point samples taken from March 13, 2025 to Dec. 16, 2025.

Lead and copper: EPA SDWIS monitoring periods ending 1993 to 2004.

Nitrate, arsenic, chromium (total), fluoride, haloacetic acids (HAA5) and total trihalomethanes (TTHM): Pennsylvania’s own results, samples taken from May 12, 2020 to March 18, 2026, with EPA’s 2012 to 2019 file for earlier years.

Uranium: EPA’s compliance monitoring file, samples taken from Aug. 8, 2013 to Nov. 12, 2019. Newer results are in the utility’s annual water quality report.

PFAS: None of the six PFAS in EPA’s 2024 drinking water rule was found in this utility’s samples.

EPA’s 2024 PFAS rule, compound by compound

PFASEPA’s limitResult
PFOA4.0 pptNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
PFOS4.0 pptNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
PFHxS10 pptNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
PFNA10 pptNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
HFPO-DA (GenX)10 pptNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
PFBSIndex onlyNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
Results from Pennsylvania’s own PFAS monitoring, samples where water enters the pipes; each compound’s card has its four-quarter averages, the way limits are judged. The limits are EPA’s 2024 rule, with compliance due from 2029; EPA has since proposed changes to some of them, explained on each compound’s page. Pennsylvania’s own limits for PFOA and PFOS are in force now. PFBS has no limit of its own and counts only toward EPA’s Hazard Index, which TapBuff works out only from UCMR 5’s averages, so it isn’t given here.

Above the legal limit1

Lead

Comes from pipes, often your own

Above the action level

17ppb

90th percentile, 2004

In the latest period, 9 in 10 homes sampled were at or below 17 ppb, above EPA’s action level of 15 ppb. The action level drops to 10 ppb on Nov. 1, 2027, and this result is at or above that. EPA’s health goal for lead is zero.

What handles it

Above the health goal1

Uranium

Comes from the source

Above the health goal

3.2ppb

Highest yearly average, 2013 to 2019

2019, one sample: 0.004 ppb

Averaged by year, the highest was 3.2 ppb, in 2013: below EPA’s legal limit of 30 ppb, but above its health goal of zero. In 2019, the latest year on file, its one sample was 0.004 ppb.

What handles it

Below EPA’s limits1

Nitrate

Comes from the source

Below EPA’s limits

0.42ppm

Highest sample; found in 4 of 7

2026, one sample: 0.26 ppm

The highest sample, in 2022, was 0.42 ppm, below EPA’s legal limit of 10 ppm. In 2026, the latest year on file, its one sample was 0.26 ppm. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest sample of 1.5 ppm, in 2017.

What handles it

  • NSF/ANSI 58 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite Reduction”
  • NSF/ANSI 53 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite (30 ppm challenge)”
11 compounds tested and not foundIncluding all six PFAS in EPA’s 2024 rule. Below the reporting level in every sample. Not found is not the same as zero.

From routine monitoring

  • Arsenic
  • Chromium (total)
  • Fluoride
  • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
  • Total trihalomethanes (TTHM)

PFAS, from Pennsylvania’s own monitoring

  • HFPO-DA (GenX)
  • PFBS
  • PFHxS
  • PFNA
  • PFOA
  • PFOS

What handles it

A certification covers specific claims, not a whole standard. Look for these claims on the certifier’s listing, not the box. Wording varies a little: NSF writes “Lead Reduction,” WQA just “Lead.”

At the tap, or for the whole house?

Lead and copper usually come from pipes and fixtures inside or near your home. A whole-house system sits where water enters, so it cannot catch what your own plumbing adds after it. For those, the filter that counts is the one at the tap. How whole-house systems compare.

Filters with those claims on a certifier’s listing

Disclosure: TapBuff earns a commission if you buy through some links on this page. It does not change which standard or filter we name. As an Amazon Associate, TapBuff earns from qualifying purchases. How TapBuff makes money

Compare five-year costs

The best water filters for lead, ranked

Violations since 2016

Contaminant or ruleTypePeriodMeasuredStatus
Revised Total Coliform RuleColiform results required a check of the system, and the check or its fixes were not done on time.EPA: Treatment Technique, Level 1 Assessment (RTCR)June 7, 2026—Unaddressed
Revised Total Coliform RuleColiform results required a check of the system, and the check or its fixes were not done on time.EPA: Treatment Technique, Level 1 Assessment (RTCR)Oct. 3, 2022—Resolved
Groundwater RuleRequired treatment for surface water or groundwater was not met.EPA: Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR)Nov. 1, 2018 to Nov. 30, 2018—Resolved
Health-based violations only. Resolved and archived mean the utility returned to compliance or the state closed the record. 17 monitoring or reporting violations not shown.

What this report can’t tell you

  • Everything else. Nitrate, arsenic, chromium (total), fluoride, haloacetic acids (HAA5) and total trihalomethanes (TTHM) results here are Pennsylvania’s own from 2020 on, with EPA’s national file for 2012 to 2019. Uranium comes from EPA’s file alone, which ends in 2019. Elk Meadows’s own annual report, which it must send you every year, has newer results for those and the contaminants this page does not show.

  • Your own plumbing. Lead results are the 90th percentile across homes the utility samples. Your home’s service line, solder and fixtures decide yours. A certified lab test is the only way to know.

  • What it means for your health. This page reports what the records show and EPA’s limits and goals; it is not medical advice. If you are worried about a health effect, talk to a doctor or your local health department.

  • Anything after the latest data. SDWIS data is from 2026 Q3; UCMR 5 didn’t sample this utility; Pennsylvania’s results run from May 12, 2020 to March 18, 2026; EPA’s compliance samples are from Aug. 8, 2013 to Nov. 12, 2019; Pennsylvania’s PFAS results run from March 13, 2025 to Dec. 16, 2025.

Testing your own tap

Elk Meadows’s results are for the water it sends out. What your own service line, solder and fixtures add shows up only in a test of your tap, by a lab Pennsylvania certifies.

The 3 labs Pennsylvania certifies closest to the area Elk Meadows serves, in a straight line. Call first: certification is test by test, and not every lab takes samples from homeowners.

  • Princeton Analytical Labs

    Dunmore, PA · about 21 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics

    (570) 209-7916

  • Microbac Laboratories, Inc. - Pittston

    Pittston, PA · about 31 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics, organic chemicals, disinfection byproducts

    (570) 348-0775

  • A E Kirby Memorial Health Center

    Wilkes-Barre, PA · about 38 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics

    (570) 822-4278

Penn State Agricultural Analytical Services Laboratory: Drinking water test kits from many county Extension offices, mailed back to the lab overnight with payment. Packages cover bacteria and basic chemistry, with add-ons for nitrate, metals, lead, and mining or gas drilling concerns. The standard package of bacteria, pH and total dissolved solids is $60, or $70 with nitrate; bacteria alone is $40, nitrate $15 and lead $25. Drinking Water Testing, Penn State Agricultural Analytical Services Lab.

All 108 certified labs for Pennsylvania

Sources

PWSID PA2580042. Rebuilt from EPA data on Oct. 18, 2026.

Also in Susquehanna County

All Pennsylvania utilities

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