宾夕法尼亚州1200万居民中约有800万人从329个地表水处理厂获得水。本研究评估了其中一部分电厂的性能，以确定它们是否符合《强化地表水处理规则》的浊度处理技术要求。作者使用75家过滤厂，审查了关键水质、设计和操作变量，以确定它们对过滤水浊度的影响。除不使用混凝剂、为3300人提供服务或使用溪流作为水源的工厂外，任何变量与过滤水浊度之间都没有强的统计相关性。 尽管存在系统规模小、设备老化或水源水浊度高等限制，许多工厂仍能持续实现低浊度水平。这项研究的结果表明，无形变量（如实现低浊度的承诺、操作员技能水平和操作员注意力）似乎比有形变量（如水源水质、所有权类型、工厂年龄、混凝剂类型和其他操作或设计因素）更重要。包括10个参考文献、表格和图表。

Approximately 8 million of Pennsylvania's 12 million residents receive water from 329 surface water treatment plants. This study evaluated the performance of a subset of these plants to determine whether they are prepared to meet the turbidity treatment technique requirements of the Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule. Using 75 filtration plants, the authors reviewed key water quality, design, and operational variables to determine their effect on filtered water turbidity. Except for plants that did not use a coagulant, served populations of <3,300 people, or used streams for source water, there was no strong statistical correlation between any of the vaiables and filtered water turbidity. Many plants were able to consistantly achieve low turbidity levels despite limitations such as small system size, plant age, or high source water turbidity. The results of this study show that intangible variables such as commitment to achieving low turbidity, operator skill level, and operator attention appear to be more important than tangible variables such as source water quality, ownership type, plant age, coagulant type, and other operational or design factors. Includes 10 references, tables, figures.