Discharge is one of the major factors influencing the evolution of solute concentration in river water. Different modeling approaches exist to characterize the dependency of concentration on discharge: the simplest require calibration, they are based on measurable quantities (stream discharge and stream water concentration) but do not allow for an explicit, physical, flow-path interpretation; the more complex are based on mixing assumptions with different end-member sources, but require knowledge of the (unmeasurable) flow components. Here, we present a combination between the simple concentration–discharge (C-Q) approach with the mass balance (MB) mixing approach, which we apply to a new high-frequency series on the Oracle-Orgeval Observatory (France) (Tunqui et al., submitted). This new methodology shows a better performance than the two approaches applied separately, allowing us to better describe the concentrations measured in the stream.