The present paper describes an interaction study of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol with a rich-clay soil sample (clay content of 62.3%). Experiments performed using long contact times, in concentrations of 50.0 mg L(-1) showed practically no signal of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol after 48, 72, and 120 h, respectively, suggesting a sorption process. Sorption experiments in the period of 24 h were carried out with the phenolic compounds in concentrations between 5.00 and 500.0 mg L(-1), and negligible interaction between the phenolic species and the soil was observed. Additional experiments were carried out using HgCl(2) or NaN(3) solution as biodegradation inhibitors. After 10 days of contact time in the presence of inhibitors, no alterations in the concentrations of the three compounds studied were observed, and the results suggest no sorption process, with the compounds being almost entirely biodegraded by the soil sample, or possibly the formation of nonextractable residues could occur.