Accidental or deliberate discharge of toxic volatile organic compounds (VOC) in rivers may jeopardize water supplies of urban centers located downstream from the discharge site. However, VOC may be removed from aqueous solution in rivers through the natural process of volatilization. An integrated theory of volatilization of VOC from aqueous solution was developed using results from disparate studies and was altered to model stream dynamics. Preliminary application to a single field study was used to demonstrate the validity of the model as a first approximation.