The wastewater from a small specialty chemicals manufacturing plant located on the Pawtuxet River (Rhode Island, USA) has contaminated the water and sediment of that river, the Pawtuxet Cove, the Providence River, and (to a lesser extent) the Narragansett Bay. Since the compounds found in this system cover a wide range of functionalities, polarities, and water solubilities, a detailed study of this system has allowed us to assess the environmental behavior of several compound types in one aquatic system. The authors find that the aqueous concentrations of the various compounds follow the rules of simple dilution and that those compounds with the highest octanol-water partition coefficients (log P) are strongly associated with the particulate matter in the water and are found in the sediment at the greatest distance from the plant.