Contaminants can move by diffusion in both gas and aqueous phase and in some circumstances can be moved by animals such as moles and earthworms. Do not forget bulk flow of liquids under gravity or pressure particularly along preferential pathways. Not sure that sorption and degradation are means by which they move. Sorption will be a means of stopping the movement and degradation can only assist movement if the process produces a more mobile compound.
It might be useful to say which contaminants you are looking at as well as what kind of system they move in (saturated, unsaturated, imiscible fluids?). In general, advection, dispersion, and diffusion are considered the "transport" mechanisms for contaminants while sorption is generally considered a retardation mechanism. Precipitation, degradation (photo, microbial, or chemical), biological uptake, and phase partitioning are generally considered the "fate" part of fate-and-transport models since they may be irreversible based on your system (compared to sorption for example). Keep in mind though that the lines aren't clearly drawn. Diffusion into interstitial pore space is a retardation mechanism as well.