Recent regulations promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including the Surface Water Treatment Rule, have helped to renew the interest in the use of slow sand filtration (SSF) for treating surface waters for small communities. Slow sand filtration is not a new process, but is one that has been used to treat water effectively since the early 1800's. Interest in slow sand filtration in the United States has increased dramatically in the past thirteen years. New analytical techniques, such as particle counting, improved turbidity, improved growth media for microbiological analysis, and advanced techniques for measuring organic constituents allowed for more detailed studies than were possible in the early 1900's. The new work led to the publication of design manuals and task committee reports describing slow sand filtration in detail.