The impact of phenolic-contaminated water on microbial community structure was assessed using Biolog microarrays techniques. The following Biolog plates were used: GEN III plates, new test panel for identification of both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, EcoPlates microarray for evaluation of functional diversity of microbial communities and phenotype microarrays (PMs) for characterization of the selected bacterial strains. Most of the isolated strains were identified as: Paenibacillus castaneae, Chryseobacterium indoltheticum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Acinetobacter johnsonie, Mycobacterium flavescens, Ralstonia pickettii, Acinetobacter schindleri, Microbacterium maritypicum. The mean value of substrate richness (S) was high (30.67). Also, microbial activity in contaminated water evaluated by AWCD and AUC was high. The mean values of AWCD and AUC were 1.5 and 740.10, respectively. Instead, the mean values of Shannon-Weiner functional diversity index (H) and Shannon Evenness index were low, 1.46 and 0.978, respectively. The carbohydrates (Carb) and carboxylic and acetic acids (C & AA) were the most utilized carbon sources by the microbial communities of phenol-contaminated water. The proprieties of Pseudomonas fluorescens and Paenibacillus castaneae to oxidize 190 different substrates as sole carbon sources (PM1 and PM2), and the sensitivity to various toxic chemical compounds at 4 different concentrations (PM11, PM12 and PM13) were evaluated. Phenotypic microarrays used identified the differences between species. Both studied bacterial strains showed high ability to metabolize aminoacids as well as carbohydrates. Among carboxylic acids Pseudomonas fluorescens was able to used more of substrates as a sole of carbon in comparison with Paenibacterium castaneae.