The City of Hannibal and the Hannibal Board of Public Works have filed a motion for a change of venue in a class-action lawsuit leveled against the two entities.

The motion was filed in the 10th judicial circuit on Tuesday, April 26.

If approved, action in the lawsuit — which alleges the BPW failed to provide potable water to customers, exposing them to “probable human carcinogens” — would take place outside of Marion County.

The six-count lawsuit, filed by four Hannibal residents, seeks unspecified damages from consumption of water exceeding federal mandates for disinfection byproducts over a four-year period from September 2011 to September 2015.

Dating back to September 2011, the water provided by the BPW exceeded the federally-mandated threshold for total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), a specific disinfection byproduct including chloroform and bromoform. According to court documents, the maximum contaminant level for TTHMs is 80 parts per billion.

According to the lawsuit document, BPW water contained contaminant levels as high as 126 parts per billion in 2012 and 157 parts per billion in 2014. The most recent violation occurred in September 2015, a month before the new disinfection methods went live.

The lawsuit does not have any actual health claims, although court documents claim consumption of the water in Hannibal might have any of variety of detrimental health effects.

Plaintiffs Oliver “O.C.” Latta, Vickie Brooks, Crystal Stephens and Christine Stolte have been vocal opponents to the addition of chloramines, beginning in October 2015, as a disinfection method in Hannibal’s water system. The lawsuit does not deal with chloramines.

The City of Hannibal and BPW have remained mostly quiet about the lawsuit.