The City of Houston, Texas has been aware of the implications that current and pending regulatory standards would have on the operation of their four surface water treatment facilities. In particular, the City has closely monitored changes in regulations related to enhanced coagulation, total organic carbon (TOC) removal, and disinfection by-products (DBP) reduction. The City has, and continues, to conduct extensive bench, pilot, and plant scale tests to determine how these regulatory changes would impact the operation of their surface water facilities. The TOC content of the source and finished water is the common attribute that significantly impacts each of the regulations of interest. TOC is perhaps the one water quality parameter that could impact the financial bottom line of a utility most. In most cases, a fully automated surface treatment facility still measures TOC by collecting periodic grab samples for laboratory analysis. Making treatment decisions based on periodic TOC grab samples is comparable to flying a commercial airliner without instrumentation.