ABSTRACT: The large agricultural pesticide use results in presence of these compounds in those parts of the environment where it is not desirable. Sorption is believed to be one of the major processes controlling fate of pesticides in soil and water environment. This paper presents laboratory research on the sorption behaviour of six comrnonly used herbicides: acetochlor, atrazine, chlorotoluron, 2,4-D-DMA, MCPA and trifluralin in 3 soil samples of different type. The experimentally obtained sorption parameters were used to evaluate the potential risk of grou nd water contamination by the studied herbicides using relative leaching potential index (RLPI), groundwater ubiquity score (OUS) and criteria for groundwater contamination risk assessment proposed by US EPA. A good agreement was found among results obtained by these 3 approaches, indicating a high potential of groundwater contamination risk in the case of atrazine and MCPA.