This study focused on evaluating the efficiency of powdered activated carbon (PAC) adsorption process and tackling chlorobenzenes and chlorophenols spill in drinking water source. The adsorption kinetics and PAC’s capacities for five chlorobenzenes and three chlorophenols at drinking water contamination levels were studied in order to determine the influence of different functional groups on the adsorption behavior. The results showed that PAC adsorption could be used as an effective emergency drinking water treatment process to remove these compounds. The adsorption kinetics took 30 min to achieve nearly equilibrium and could be described by both pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order models. A mathematic relationship was developed between the pseudo first-order adsorption rate constant, k₁, and the solutes’ properties including lgK_ow, polarizability and molecular weight. The Freundlich isotherm equation could well describe the adsorption equilibrium behaviors of chlorinated aromatics with r² from 0.920 to 0.999. The H-bond donor/acceptor group, hydrophobicity, solubility and molecular volume were identified as important solute properties that affect the PAC adsorption capacity. These results could assist water professionals in removing chlorinated aromatics during emergency drinking water treatment.