A unified linear theory for the transport of adsorbing solutes through soils is presented and applied to analyze movement of napropamide through undisturbed soil columns. The transport characteristics of the soil are expressed in terms of the travel time distribution of the mobile phase which is then used to incorporate local interaction processes. This approach permits the analysis of all linear transport processes, not only the small subset for which a differential description is known. From a practical point of view, it allows the direct use of measured concentrations or fluxes of conservative solutes to characterize the mobile phase without first subjecting them to any model. For complicated flow regimes, this may vastly improve the identification of models and estimation of their parameters for the local adsorption processes. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993