Conventional water purified processes have low removal efficiencies for low concentrations of ammonia nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen and micro-pollutants. The efficiency and mechanisms of a novel immobilized biological activated carbon (IBAC) process to remove those pollutants from treated potable water was investigated.Operated at a hydraulic retention time of 24 minutes, the IBAC process achieved ammonia nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen and organic micro-pollutants (measured as COD equivalent) removal efficiencies of 95%, 96% and 37%, respectively. A GC/MS analysis of the organic micro-pollutants revealed that the initial 24 organic compounds in the in-coming water were reduced to 7 after the IBAC treatment. The organic micro-pollutant removal efficiency decreased with decreasing in-coming concentrations. Pollutant reduction in the IBAC process was achieved by a rapid physical adsorption on the activated carbon, which effectively retained the pollutants in the system despite the short hydraulic retention time, followed by a slower biological enzymatic degradation of the pollutants.