The effects of soil fulvic (JGFA) and humic acid (JGHA) on Pb binding to goethite were investigated with batch experiments and modeling. The CD-MUSIC and NICA-Donnan model could describe the Pb binding to, respectively, the binary Pb-goethite and Pb-HS systems. The adsorption of humic substances (HS) on goethite strongly depended on pH and was promoted by Pb binding. The mass amount of adsorbed JGFA (mg/g) was smaller than that of JGHA, but when expressed in number of particles/nm(2) the JGFA adsorption was higher. At low pH and low initial Pb concentration the linear additivity rule always underestimated Pb adsorption to goethite-HS complex, which was caused by the strong effect of adsorbed HS on the electrostatic potentials in the Stern layer region. At other conditions except the 450 mg/L JGHA in the 0.5 mmol/L Pb system the additivity rule predicted the experimental results reasonably well, and at high pH nearly all Pb is bound to goethite. At the same mass adsorbed, the effect of JGFA on Pb adsorption to goethite is stronger than that of JGHA, due to the fact that the JGFA particles were primarily adsorbed in the Stern layer, whereas JGHA particles were present in both Stern layer and diffuse layer. Therefore, the electrostatic potential profile of the goethite-JGFA complex is considerably different from that of goethite-JGHA complex and affects Pb binding strongly. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.