The retention of 32 monocyclic aromatic compounds and 14 polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been studied on four different bonded phases in each of two mobile phases. An additional data set of 21 monocyclic aromatics judiciously chosen for their well-established solvatochromic parameters, 12 PAHs and 12 polychlorinated biphenyls (containing up to 10 chlorines), were studied on a single column. The results indicate that despite the accuracy of the solvatochromic linear solvation energy method for predicting and correlating the octanol/water partition coefficients and water solubilities of these environmentally important materials, the methodology is limited to only certain types of bonded phases. As a corollary to this observation, we caution others that the common practice of estimating log Kow (Kow=octanol-water partition coefficient) based on measurement of the reversed-phase capacity factors should be limited to specific types of columns.