In this article, the important considerations in the concentration of organic refractories from a highly turbid natural surface water and a sampling technique in conformance with these considerations are presented. Activated carbon adsorption beds in series were used to concentrate the refractories under both basic and acidic pH conditions. Because of the need for passing clarified river water through the adsorption beds, several solids separation techniques were evaluated as pretreatment processes. Sedimentation followed by diatomite filtration produced a clarified water low in turbidity and suspended solids. The significant increases over previous methods for concentrating refractories from the river water were probably associated with the use of a clarified river water. Furthermore, larger quantities of organic refractories were obtained from the clarified water concentrated under an acidic rather than a basic adsorption condition. The refractories associated with the particulate matter were also eluted and characterized. Each extract of organic refractories had a distinct COD value, threshold odor level, and functional‐group separation. Data on the characterization of these extracts are presented in this article.

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