The Water Resources Research special section on Colloid Transport in Subsurface Environments presents new knowledge that is critical to solving problems related to groundwater pollution by microbial pathogens and hazardous chemicals. This introduction to the special section surveys fourteen manuscripts that advance current understanding of the transport of biocolloids (e.g., bacteria, viruses, and protozoa), mineral colloids, and colloid-associated contaminants in the vadose zone and in groundwater. These papers present new techniques for elucidating mechanisms that govern colloid mobility, propose mathematical models appropriate for quantifying colloid and colloid-associated contaminant transport, and report pore-scale and column-scale observations requisite for evaluating these models. Together, the papers of this special section illuminate the complexity of the colloid transport problem and describe progress toward understanding this complexity.