Louisiana's 2026 Water Report Card: 58 Public Systems Fail, Including Shreveport

The Louisiana Department of Health released its annual drinking-water report card the week of May 5, 2026, assigning letter grades to 909 community public water systems statewide. The headline numbers point in two directions at once: 67% of systems — about 608 — earned an A, while 58 systems received a failing F grade. The largest failing system is Shreveport, the state’s third-largest city; the most acute health concern is arsenic contamination in Rayville.

Louisiana is one of the few states that grades its water systems publicly and by statute. The legislature has required the annual report card since 2021, making it a rare window into utility-by-utility performance that most states don’t offer. The grades reward consistency and infrastructure health — but as state officials caution, an F does not automatically mean the water is unsafe to drink, and an A does not mean a system is problem-free.

How the Grades Are Calculated

The report card scores each system across seven categories, not water-quality test results alone:

Federal water-quality compliance — meeting EPA Safe Drinking Water Act standards
State violations
Financial sustainability
Operation and maintenance
Infrastructure condition
Customer satisfaction
Secondary contaminants (taste, odor, color, and other aesthetic factors)

That breadth is why a system can fail on financial or infrastructure grounds while still delivering water that meets federal health standards — and why a passing grade doesn’t rule out specific contaminant concerns. The grade is a measure of overall system health, much like the data WaterVerge integrates from EPA SDWIS compliance records into city water profiles.

Where the Failures Concentrate

The failing grades are not evenly spread. The report card surfaced several hotspots:

Shreveport is the largest municipality to receive an F. Its failing status stems from a combination of aging infrastructure and regulatory violations — the kind of compounding pressure that has driven rate increases and crisis conditions in older systems nationwide.
Union Parish has the highest concentration of failures: half of its 20 water providers received an F, and more than 17,000 residents there get their water from a failing system.
Rayville drew attention for arsenic violations — exceedances of the federal threshold for a contaminant with serious long-term health risks.

Why Arsenic Is the Most Serious Finding

Of everything in the report card, the Rayville arsenic violation carries the clearest direct health implication. The EPA sets the maximum contaminant level for arsenic in drinking water at 10 parts per billion (ppb). Arsenic is a known human carcinogen; chronic exposure above the limit is associated with elevated risks of bladder, lung, and skin cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease.

Unlike a financial or customer-satisfaction demerit, an arsenic exceedance is a federal health-based violation. Residents on a system with documented arsenic problems should treat it seriously: arsenic is not removed by boiling, and standard pitcher filters are generally not certified for it. Reverse-osmosis systems and specific arsenic-rated adsorption filters are the proven point-of-use options — see our reverse-osmosis system guide for certified units.

What an F Grade Does — and Doesn’t — Mean

State health officials were explicit that the grades are a tool, not a verdict on safety. A system can fail on infrastructure age, financial sustainability, or repeated administrative violations while still producing water that meets every federal health standard. Conversely, an A reflects strong overall management but doesn’t guarantee the absence of every contaminant — secondary issues or intermittent problems can still occur.

The practical takeaway for residents: use the grade as a prompt to look closer, not as a final answer. The most reliable picture of your own water comes from your system’s Consumer Confidence Report, which lists actual detected contaminants and any violations, and from testing your own tap if you have specific concerns.

What Louisiana Residents Should Do

Look up your system’s grade and its CCR. The report card tells you how your system ranks overall; the Consumer Confidence Report tells you what’s actually in the water.
If your system flagged arsenic or another health-based violation, don’t rely on boiling — it doesn’t remove dissolved metals. Use a reverse-osmosis system or an arsenic-certified filter, and consider testing your tap to confirm levels at your faucet.
Pregnant residents and households with infants should be especially cautious with any system showing contaminant violations — review our pregnancy water-quality guide and infant water-safety guide.
On a private well? State report cards cover only public systems. Well owners are responsible for their own testing — see our well-water testing guide.

What Comes Next

The 2026 report card showed continued improvement over prior years, with fewer failing systems statewide than in earlier editions — a sign that the public-grading requirement is nudging utilities toward investment. But 58 failing systems, several serving thousands of residents, underscores how much of the work remains, particularly for small rural providers facing the same infrastructure and financing pressures as systems across the country.

How WaterVerge Tracks This

WaterVerge integrates EPA SDWIS compliance data — including violations like the Rayville arsenic exceedance — into city and state water profiles. When a system records a health-based violation or a contaminant exceeds its action level, that history surfaces in our coverage. Our arsenic contaminant page covers the health basis for the 10 ppb limit and the treatment methods proven to reduce it.