Characterization work has begun on organic compounds and compound classes to establish a baseline for the evaluation and development of alternative instrumental characterization techniques. For this purpose raw water from two oil shale processes has been subjected to an extraction and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis. Samples from the R-17 and Rio Blanco processes were chosen for comparison with previous characterization work reported by Poulson et al. (1984, 1985), who used low-cost gas and reverse-phase liquid chromatographic (LC) techniques. In addition, various inorganic and physical parameters were re-evaluated. The preliminary comparison of GC/MS data with the GC and reverse phase LC data previously reported by Poulson et al., indicates a number of positive correlations for both the process waters. Aliphatic carboxylic acids, cresols, xylenols, methyl pyridines, dimethyl pyridines, and trimethyl pyridines were found both in present GC/MS analysis and in earlier GC and LC analyses of the samples. In addition, trimethylphenols were observed in both the present GC/MS analysis and in the previous GC and LC analyses of the Rio Blanco sample. A number of tentatively identified compounds and compound classes were observed in the GC/MS analysis but were unreported in either the GC or LC analyses for both samples. Similarly, several compounds and compound classes previously reported by GC and LC techniques were absent in the GC/MS analysis. These discrepancies may be attributed to either the original GC and LC research design or to a fundamental chemical change in the samples used for the GC/MS characterization. Additional research is necessary in the areas of extraction design, use of comparable GC and GC/MS marker compounds for identification, standardization of chromatographic columns and GC conditions, and the validity of computer library identifications. 3 refs., 2 figs., 12 tabs.