The measurement of trace metals in environmental waters is of great importance to ecosystems and human health. This is not only for the provision of safe drinking water to communities, but also to protect natural resources from excess pollution coming from industry and treated wastewater effluent. Many laboratories across the world will monitor these waters based on guidelines from local or federal regulations. In any case, the main workhorse for monitoring these elements is either ICP or ICPMS, due to their robust and superior detection capabilities. While these instruments have seen improvements over the years, the emphasis for most laboratories is how to reduce the sample preparation and increase efficiency. Here, we present an enhanced automation platform (prepFAST 3) in combination with a NexION 2000 ICPMS for the analysis of environmental waters under US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 200.8 guidelines. The method accuracy and precision will be demonstrated using USGS reference waters.