AWWA QTC98218

West Virginia-American Water Company (WVAWC) has found that many operations and design factors can impact disinfection byproducts (DBP's). Major factors are source water quality, treatment plants' capacity to remove organic precursors effectively, and chlorine contact time in plants and distribution sytems. Combinations of positive factors which result in lower DBP's and negative factors which result in higher DBP's occur in every system. No single factor is the determiner of DBP levels in WVAWC facilities but the summation of all effects determines. In addition, changes made to meet DBP requirements must be balanced with the need to maintain adquate disinfection in plants and distribution systems. This paper describes how the American Water Works Company, in cooperation with WVWAC, conducts Comprehensive Planning Studies to assess needs for and to plan capital investment projects to most efficiently maintain WVAWC's systems in compliance with changing safe drinking water regulations such as the proposed Disinfectants/Disinfection Byproduct Rule.