The final stage in most municipal treatments is filtration and aeration. Water is pumped through large tanks filled with fine sand, called rapid sand filters. As the water flows through the spaces between the sand grains, suspended particles and dead microbes get trapped. Sometimes, crushed anthracite coal is used in addition to sand. Because the coal grains carry a charge on their surface, they act like tiny magnets attracting other charged contaminants.
Aeration is exactly what it sounds like - adding air to water.
When sprayed through large, fountainlike devices, water not only gains a great deal of oxygen, but any volatile compounds that may have been in the water escape into the atmosphere. In the end, all the water we use doesn't just go down the drain and disappear. It gets recycled by the evaporative power of the sun. When water evaporates, most of the contaminants stay behind, which in theory means it rains pure water back on the land. Unfortunately, because of gases in the air, much of the water that falls from the sky is coming down pre-polluted, so municipalities are going to have to work even harder in the future to treat the water we drink.