LW is one of the largest and most tradition-rich long-distance water supplies in Germany and delivers around 100 million m³ of drinking water a year to three million people in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Around 60 % of the drinking water comes from the groundwater resources of the Swabian Alb. The groundwater catchment area extends from the Donauried to the karst watershed on the plateau of the Swabian Alb. The water protection area "Donauried-Hürbe" covers the entire catchment area with an area of 517 km². The operation and research laboratory of the LW has been dealing with the problem of organic substances in surface, ground and drinking water for many years. Since 2004, methods for the enrichment-free targeted determination of trace substances have been developed and successfully used for monitoring.

In order to make monitoring even more broad-based, the screening methods non-target screening and impact-based analytics have already been continuously developed and used for monitoring for more than 10 years. Through its own research work, LW has strongly supported the development of these analytical techniques in recent years and has also been actively involved in committee work. For more than 10 years, the LW has chaired the expert committee "Non-Target Screening" of the Wasserchemische Gesellschaft and disseminates its research results in established networks (Norman, IKSR, DVGW, etc.). The LW has carried out numerous research projects (BMBF projects: ASKURIS, TRANS-RISK, RISK-IDENT, FOR-IDENT, Neuro-Box, DVGW WBA-BeReit, DVGW WBA-NTS-ProTrink, BMBF K2I) and holds several patents.