Leaching of industrial waste storage settings can lead to severe water ressource pollution. Geomaterials barriers made from cement, bentonite and active carbon can overcome such problems. Retention properties of such barriers towards some volatile organochlorine compounds (dichloromethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, chloroform, trichloroethylene, 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane, chlorobenzene) have been assessed through the determination of adsorption isotherms using purge and trap techniques coupled with gas chromatography and flame ionisation detection. It has been shown that, according to the VOC, retention is mainly due to active carbon alone or, for a part, to the inorganic components of the geomaterials. Retention can be predicted from considerations founded on chemical formula, partition coefficient in the water-n-octanol system (which can be computed from Rekker hydrophobic partial constants) and adsorption energy on silica and alumina.