A literature review of tertiary waste water treatment gives special attention to activated carbon adsorption of chemical oxygen demand (COD), allowable capacity (loading) of carbon with organic waste matter, carbon particle size, and number of regeneration cycles on adsorption capacity and rate. The economic effects of shop fabrication and field erection of vessels, surge designs, plant size, idle carbon inventory, velocity, contact time, particle size, regeneration loss, carbon capacity, material costs, number of contacting stages, and in-place regeneration are discussed. Most of the data were collected from carbon treatment plants at Pomona (California), Lake Tahoe (California), Nitro (West Virginia), Washington (New Jersey), and Lebanon (Ohio). Recommendations are made for further evaluation and experimental work. (WRSIC abstract)