A new high performance ion chromatographic method has been developed for the separation of the nine chlorinated-brominated haloacetic acids (HAAs) that are the disinfection by-products of chlorination of drinking water, using a macrocycle-based adjustable-capacity anion-exchange separator column (IonPac Cryptand A1). A gradient method based on theoretical and experimental considerations has been optimized in which 10 mM NaOH-LiOH step gradient was performed at the third minute of the analysis. The optimized method allowed us to separate the nine HAAs and seven possibly interfering inorganic anions in less than 25 min with acceptable resolution. The minimum concentrations detectable for HAAs were between 8.0 (MBA) and 210 (TBA) microg L(-1), with linearity included between 0.9947 (TBA) and 0.9998 (MBA). To increase sensitivity, a 25-fold preconcentration step on a reversed phase substrate (LiChrolut EN) has been coupled. Application of this method to the analysis of haloacetic acids in real tap water samples is illustrated.