The contaminant retardation capacities of four different aquifers were evaluated in a preliminary study for development of bank filtration in the Young San river area. NO3-N, NO2-N, NH3+-N, Fe, Mn, phenol, and chloride were selected as the target contami-nants and a nonreactive tracer, respectively. Batch isotherm teste were conducted to measure the partition coefficicnts of the targer contaminsnts. The mass transport parameters of nonreactive tracer were estimated from column tests. From the results of batch isotherm tests, it was shown that lower stream aquifer materials have greater partition coefficients of NO3-N, NH4+-N, Mn, and phenol than the upper stream aquifer materials; however, there was no significant position-dependent trend for Fe. AII aquifer materials tested have the same range of partition coefficients for NH2-N. Column tests showed that the molecular diffusion of Cl- was much less than the mechanical dispersion; and there was no significant difference between the estimated dispersivities of tested aquifer materials. Consequently, it seems that the difference in the contaminant retardation capacities between four apuifers tested in this study would primarily result not from hydrodynamic dispersion but from partitioning.