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Objectives of bed sediment and fish tissue processing are as follows:

• Contaminant occurence: Determine which potentially toxic trace elements and synthetic organic compounds occur in NAWQA study units.
• Long-term trends: Define long-term trends in concentrations of selected contaminants at key locations within NAWQA study units and in a manner that will facilitate a national understanding of trends.
• Spatial distribution of contaminants: Assist in defining the spatial distribution of trace elements and synthetic organic compounds within study units and across broad geographic scales among the national set of study basins.
• Develop biological data base:Systematically develop a national, internally comparable data base on contaminant concentrations in a suite of common freshwater organisms.

• Compare land use inputs: Compare contaminant concentrations in biota and bed sediment from waters draining areas having different land uses or in gradients away from specific inputs.
• Baseline concentraions: Systematically develop an understanding of concentrations of in biota and bed sediment collected from waters of pristine or near-pristine quality in study units and regions of different geology.
• Fate and bioavailability: Increase knowledge of fate, bioaccumulation, and biological availability of selected contaminants across study units with different geologic, hydrologic and human influences, in order to aid assessment of the potential for adverse biological effects.
• Potential for human health effects: Contribute information useful in assessing the levels of contamination in edible portions of selected game fish species.
• Develop bioassessment procedures: The experience gained in the use of tissue analyses in NAWQA will aid in the general development of freshwater bioassessment procedures.