Pennington Gap’s waterworks violated a drinking water regulation when its continuous chlorine analyzer went out of service, the town told customers in a notice distributed on October 15, 2026. The analyzer keeps a running reading of the chlorine in treated water. The town says the problem was not an emergency and no one needs to boil water.
According to the notice on the town’s website, the waterworks learned on September 29, 2026, that the analyzer was out of service. It went back into service on October 8. That was nine days after the town received word of the problem.
What the town told customers
The one-page notice is titled “Inoperative Continuous Chlorine Analyzer.” Its advice is short: “There is nothing you need to do.” Anyone with specific health concerns should talk to their doctor.
Some people may face more risk, the notice adds. It names people with severely weakened immune systems, infants, pregnant women and older adults, and it tells them to ask their health care providers about drinking the water.
The town also explains why customers are hearing about this now and not within hours. “This is not an emergency,” the notice says. “If it had been, you would have been notified within 24 hours.”
The town says it is working with field staff from Virginia’s Office of Drinking Water. It is also moving ahead with an application to bring the waterworks back into compliance, and it expects to resolve the problem within 15 days.
Why the chlorine reading matters
Chlorine is added to drinking water to kill germs. Enough of it has to stay in the water as it moves through the pipes. That is why Virginia makes waterworks that draw and filter surface water track the chlorine level without a break.
The rule is 12VAC5-590-376. It says the chlorine level of water entering the distribution system “shall be monitored continuously.” The lowest and highest readings must be recorded each day.
The same rule plans for broken equipment. If a continuous monitor fails, the waterworks must take a grab sample, a single sample collected by hand, every four hours instead. It can do that for no more than five working days after the failure.
Smaller systems have another option. Those serving 3,300 people or fewer may take grab samples on a set daily schedule. For a system serving 1,000 to 2,500 people, the rule’s table calls for three a day.
The town’s notice does not say which part of the rule was missed. It also does not say whether grab samples were taken while the analyzer was down, or what the chlorine readings were.
Who gets this water
Federal records describe the Pennington Gap waterworks, state system ID 1105500, as a community water system that draws on surface water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water database lists it as serving 1,781 people through 972 service connections.
The EPA’s compliance report for the system shows two earlier problems in 2025, both resolved. In January, the system had a treatment technique violation and a reporting violation under the Revised Total Coliform Rule, which deals with testing for bacteria. Both are marked resolved on January 30, 2025.
Starting February 27, the system had two violations of the Public Notice Rule. Both were resolved on March 31, 2025. The EPA data behind the report was last updated on October 7, 2026, and does not yet show the chlorine analyzer outage.
Questions and sharing the notice
The notice lists Chris Sexton as the contact for questions, at 528 Industrial Drive in Pennington Gap or (276) 546-2234.
It also asks customers to pass the information on. Some people who drink the water may not have received the notice directly, it says, such as residents of apartments and nursing homes, and people at schools and businesses.
By the time the notice went out, the analyzer had been running again for a week.