Long term (January 2005-January 2008) monitoring of sediments was used to investigate metal pollution in the estuary of the Nerbioi-Ibaizabal River (Bilbao, Basque Country). Sediments were collected from eight representative locations of the estuary approximately every three months. The concentration of fourteen elements was measured in sediment extracts. Different graphical representations of the data set, simple statistical methods and sediment quality guidelines were combined to investigate trends in space and time, identify pollution sources, and assess sediment quality from a toxicological point of view. In general terms, the main trend reveals a significant fall in metal concentration over the period investigated. There are still certain points of the estuary with relatively high concentration of toxic metals, but the toxicological approach suggests that the risk for living organisms is not important. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.