Due to human activity, many manmade organic chemicals (i.e., pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals) are discharged into the aquatic environments. These chemicals are present in drinking water sources at trace concentrations and are named “organic micropollutants (OMPs)”. The residual OMPs in final drinking water threaten public health due to their potential toxicity. Therefore, drinking water production plants (DWPPs) need to effectively remove OMPs. An economic strategy for OMP elimination is to use the existing treatment processes at DWPPs. Rapid sand filters (RSFs) are widely installed at DWPPs to remove multiple contaminants, which also offer ancillary benefits by contributing to OMP removal. Previous investigations mainly focused on the overall removal performance of OMPs in RSFs. Much less is known about the removal mechanisms and the key operational factors for OMP removal. This dissertation investigates both biotic and abiotic OMP removal mechanisms, and the effects of operational parameters on OMP removal.