La Salle’s water tested positive for haloacetic acids in the last quarter of 2025, but city officials say there’s no health risk to residents.
The city received a haloacetic acids violation, or HAA5, for October, November and December 2025, City Engineer Brian Brown said during Monday night’s council meeting.
Brown said residents didn’t have to be specifically notified of the test results, as the other samples came back under the allotted limit of 60 parts per billion.
The city’s water treatment operator, Total Environmental Service Technologies, a Peru-based business, was responsible for the issue on the 2025 Consumer Confidence Report, Brown said.
“Because they had a problem with one of the samples, we had to report it on the CCR, but there was really no reason to be concerned,” he said. “It was out of their control and out of our control.”
To avoid violations, municipalities must provide two samples quarterly that fall below the Maximum Contaminant Level of 60 parts per billion, Brown said. The sample that caused the violation was from December 2025.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, haloacetic acids (HAAs) are chemical compounds consisting of an acetic acid backbone and one or more halogen atoms such as chlorine, bromine, and iodine. HAAs are formed during the disinfection of water through reactions between chlorine-based disinfectants and organic matter in the source water.
Some people who drink water containing haloacetic acids in excess of the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level) over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer, according to the 2025 Consumer Confidence Report, and the likely source of contamination is a “by-product of drinking water disinfection.”
After reaching out to Total Environmental Service Technologies about the issue, Brown said the company cited an error in lab equipment from its subcontractor that impacted one of the two required samples.
To prevent future violations, Total Environmental Service Technologies is eliminating its subcontractor and conducting the testing in-house, Brown said.
“It’s a relatively new test that EPA requires,” Brown said. “It’s something that they will be capable of doing soon and won’t have to contract out.”