本文讨论了在世界上最大的实验管道平台上进行的一系列实验结果，并与从配水系统生物膜中分离大肠菌群的实验室研究结果进行了比较。与任何已知的氯污染源或残存水的大肠菌群故障进行比较表明，这些故障不能直接与供水故障相联系。本文描述了一项旨在确定影响大肠菌群分布失效因素的研究。

This paper discusses the results of a series of experiments carried out on the world's largest experimental pipe-rig compared with the results of laboratory studies for isolating coliform organisms from biofilms in water distribution systems. Comparison of water supply zones that have compliant water samples with those that have coliform failures indicates that the failures cannot be directly linked to low chlorine residuals, temperature or any known point source of contamination. A study which attempts to identify factors which impact on coliform failures in distribution is described.