This article provides a simple and practical five‐step process to optimize water quality from distribution systems to the tap. These five steps include: understand your distribution system, and define the problems; set water quality goals, and establish preliminary performance objectives; evaluate alternatives, and select the best approach; implement good management practices, and monitor effectiveness; and, finalize performance standards, and develop standard operating procedures. Best management practices are presented for utility operations and key guidelines and recommendations from the AWWA Research Foundation are summarized.

Finished water storage facilities play a key role in maintaining the quality of drinking water ultimately received by consumers. Without proper design, operation, and maintenance of these facilities, stored water may easily become stagnant and subject to loss of chlorine residual, as well as bacterial regrowth, contaminant entry, and a host of other water quality problems. Given that finished water storage facilities are part of the country's problem with aging infrastructure and that distribution system water quality is increasingly becoming a focus of regulators and customers, water utilities need all the tips they can get to better maintain these facilities. This paper outlines a five‐step approach to developing an operations and maintenance program for finished water storage facilities. The five steps are: understand your facility; define the water quality problems; evaluate alternatives to address water quality issues and select the best solutions; implement good management practices and monitor effectiveness; and, develop standard operating procedures. If utility managers implement this stepwise approach, the quality of water in the distribution system will most likely improve, which will improve public health protection and regulatory compliance. To be successful, though, this approach needs support from utility management to provide the resources operations staff will need to perform the work. For utilities that do not have a tank operations and maintenance program, this paper explains the need for such a program, and it offers a practical approach to setting it up. Utilities that already have a program in place may find additional ideas in this paper to refine their program.

The growing interest in the concept of privatization of municipal utility services was discussed at the AWWA annual conference in Washington, D.C., June 25, 1985. Participants were: Ronald D. Doctor of Arthur Young & Company, Seattle, Wash.; Robert A. Gerber of the Hackensack Water Company, Harrington Park, N.J.; and Paul F. Noran of Consumers Water Company, Portland, Maine. Jeffrey R. Bennett of Malcolm Pirnie Inc., White Plains, N. Y., served as moderator.