A comprehensive laboratory-scale investigation was carried out to explore the toxic metal attenuation capacity of a field clay sample collected from adjoining areas of an ash pond site of a Super Thermal Power Plant in West Bengal, India. The existence of two major elements viz., Cr6+ and Ni2+ in excess to permissible limit was observed in soil and water samples collected from the site. Batch kinetic performance results exhibited reasonable Cr6+ and Ni2+ uptake capacity of soil in equilibrium condition. The experimental data also fitted well in Freundlich isotherm model. The adsorption behaviour of above pollutants in both vertical and horizontal directions through soil was explored. The results showed that more than 80% of Ni and 72% of Cr were found to be sorbed by the soil. Breakthrough adsorption study also showed a good metal adsorption capacity of soil. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.