Conventional (e.g., coagulation, flocculation, and filtration) or memb
rane filtration treatment trains were used to remove organic compounds
from groundwater. For the conventional train with sand-anthracite col
umns, the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) of the groundwater was redu
ced from 349 +/- 127 mu g/L C to 54 +/- 51 mu g/L C. For the membrane
filtration train, there was no statistical difference between the AOC
of the raw water influent (388 +/- 126 mu g C) and that this treatment
produced biologically unstable water. Similar results were obtained u
sing the heterotrophic methods showed that HGR was positively correlat
ed with AOC (r = 0.52; P < 0.0001; n = 156), indicating that AOC only
partially explains the ability of heterotrophic bacteria to grow in wa
ter samples.