In an effort to provide adequate, safe and aesthetically pleasing drinking water to the District's customers and to comply with the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Swansea Water District undertook a pilot study of an innovative treatment process to treat the water from the wellfield. During the Spring and Fall of 1998 a pilot treatment study was conducted at the Hornbine wellfield utilizing the processes of aeration, pre-oxidation with potassium permanganate, clarification utilizing dissolved air flotation (DAF) and filtration. Raw water quality during the study was fairly consistent and the process was successful in reducing iron and manganese levels to below the secondary standards of 0.3 and 0.05 mg/L respectively. The use of oxide coated filter media also produced filtered water managanese concentrations less than the treatment goal of 0.05 mg/L. An initially unstable alum floc was improved with the addition of a cationic polymer. Aeration, DAF and filtration appears to be a suitable process for treating a highly colored groundwater with excessive levels of iron and manganese that may also be under the influence of surface water.