A method and water analysis system are provided to automatically, and without manual intervention, detect and identify contamination and/or hazardous material within one or more water samples from a potable and/or effluent water system. The method includes collecting a water sample from a potable and/or effluent water system; monitoring, in response to the collecting, sensors-detectors that are located in proximity to the collected water sample and receiving sensor-detector data from the sensors-detectors. The sensors-detectors include: laser induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS) sensor technology, gas chromatography sensor technology, mass spectroscopy sensor technology, calorimetric spectroscopy sensor technology, and radiation detection technology. The method further includes spectrally analyzing, in response to the monitoring, the received sensor-detector data to detect, identify, and quantify, metals, chemicals, radiological materials, and biological materials, within the collected water sample.