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The study investigated water treatment sludge (WTS) as a phosphorus (P) adsorbent and examined the release of organic matter during the P adsorption process. Previous studies indicated that WTS is an effective adsorbent for P but also releases organic matter, which may affect the organoleptic properties of treated water, but no study has characterised organic release and conducted an in-depth study on its behaviours. This study characterised the organic release during the P adsorption process from four different WTS samples. This study also offers results from a 60-day column experiment that indicate that WTS columns effectively removed the majority of P from the 2 mg/L feed solution. The total organic carbon (TOC) release was gradually reduced from 24.9 mg/L on day 1 to stable levels of 4.4 mg/L to 4.1 mg/L from day 22 onwards. After 60 days, when the organic matter was nearly exhausted, WTS columns …