INTRODUCTION Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are defined as a group of chemicals that are formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage, or other organic substances, such as tobacco and charbroiled meat 1 . Most of these comp- ounds have been classified by the world health organization (WHO, 1997), as carcinogenic, while others have been confir- med to be at least, mutagenic to mammals 2 . Most of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have low solubility in water and as a results they will be deposited in sedi- ments. Moreover, compounds have very low photodegradation and biodegradation and to accumulate in high concentrations 3 . Many techniques have been used to extract polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from water samples, Chen 4 , was used solid phase micro extraction method to extract polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds of water samples, Kafilzadeh et al. 5 , has been used liquid-liquid extraction Jeffrey et al. 6 , were used solid phase extraction disks, Ming- Chi et al. 7 , were used microwave assisted headspace solid- phase micro extraction method. Solid phase extraction is a simple treatment technique which passed a liquid sample through a sorbent. The analyte Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Surface Water of Shatt Al-Hilla River† FAIQ F. KARAM 1 , FALAH H. HUSSEIN 2,* , SADIQ. J. BAQIR 2 and FADHIL M. ABID 3 1 Chemistry Department, College of Science, Al-Qadisiya University, Diwania, Iraq 2 Chemistry Department, College of Science, Babylon University, Hilla, Iraq 3 Ministry of Science and Technology, Baghdad, Iraq *Corresponding author: E-mail: abohasan_hilla@yahoo.com AJC-11703 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were analyzed in surface water of Shatt Al-Hilla river (middle of Iraq). Surface water samples originated from 14 sites with a differentiated human influence starting from Sadat Al-Hindya to southern border of Hilla governorate. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were extracted simultaneously by solid phase extraction using syback-18 with dichloromethane as solvent and then analyzed by HPLC. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons concentrations were ranged between (1.08-1177.20) ng.mL -1 . The results showed the most pollutant sites was S7, which is represent the sewage pipe that came from Sooq Al-Hilla were contaminated with 12 compounds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Fifteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were present in Shatt AL-Hilla among which 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on the US-environmental protection agency priority pollutants list. The contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were variant from site to site in both (values of concentrations and existence of contaminants compounds) that may be return to the type pollutant sources, which it also was differ from site to site. Bulk deposition and domestic effluent are suggested as the main sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons pollutants in surface waters. Key Words: Surface waters, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, HPLC, Shatt Al-Hilla. †Presented at International Conference on Global Trends in Pure and Applied Chemical Sciences, 3-4 March, 2012; Udaipur, India or interferences of samples are retaining on a sorbent by differences mechanism. The analytes were eluted in a small volume of solvent, concentrated and also cleaned up the sample 8 . Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons analysis in environ- mental samples is a challenging task because of the relatively low concentrations and the complexity of the mixtures in the sample analysis for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds involves three major steps: 1) Sample preparation; 2) Sample cleanup, extraction and concentration; 3) Final detection and quantification. E. Manoli et al. 9 and Kabzinski 10 , were determined poly- cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds in surface water using HPLC, Yeasmin et al. 11 , have been used (GC-MS) to determination polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds. Kanchanamayoon and Tatrahun 8 , were determined 11 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds in water samples using LC-18 solid phase to extract this compounds. This paper aimed to measure the concentrations of 16 poly- cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds in surface water of Shatt AL-Hilla and identify the major contributing sources in different sites located on this river. Asian Journal of Chemistry; Vol. 24, No. 12 (2012), 5589-5591