Pollution of water bodies and sediments/soils by trace elements remains a global threat and a serious environmental hazard to biodiversity and human’s health. Globalization and industrialization resulted in the increase and availability of these substances in the environment posing unpredictable adverse effects to living organisms. To determine pollution status and risk contamination by trace elements, data available in literature of the last 40 years on trace elements occurrence in three environmental matrices (water bodies, sediments/soils and biota) from Continental Portugal were collected (about 90 studies). Data were compared to water and sediment quality guidelines to assess potential ecological risks. Most environmentally relevant hazardous elements include Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb, and As. Various studies found trace elements at levels higher than those considered safe by environmental guidelines. In surface waters, Al, Zn, Se and Ag were found above aquatic life limits in about 60% of the reviewed papers, while Cu, Zn and As exceed those values in more than 60% of mining waters. Hg and Cd in sediments from mining areas exceeded aquatic life limits and potential ecological risk showed extremely high risk for most of the elements. The different samples vary in terms of sampling schemes, parameters, and spatiotemporal settings. These differences make meaningful comparisons of the available data difficult but the compilation of scattered environmental spatial and temporal trace elements data, from natural sources or human activity and the ultimate effect on biological systems, is of the upmost importance to broaden its knowledge, risk assessment and implementation of mitigation measures.