The Schroeder laboratory at UCSD began a collaboration with the San Diego Baykeeper organization ( www.sdbaykeeper.org ) to assist the grassroots organization in monitoring water quality at sites throughout San Diego county. The San Diego Baykeeper was established to enforce the provisions of the federal Clean Water Act of 1972. The organization measures levels of bacteria and toxic metal contamination, and when contamination is found reports these to governmental organizations (such as the EPA and the cities of San Diego and Encinitas) responsible for the pollution. As some areas of the San Diego Bay are polluted, the work of the San Diego Baykeeper is instrumental in preserving the water quality in San Diego. A graduate student, David Lee, and a high school student, Josephine Aguilar, of the Schroeder lab have joined Baykeeper in collecting water samples from Paleta and Chollas Creeks, both designated toxic hot spots by the State Water Quality Board, and process these samples along with others collected from around the county. The water samples are being measured on the ICP-AES machine in Jeff Harper’s laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute, and further analyzed in the Schroeder laboratory to determine the levels of dissolved metals such as arsenic and lead. The data we are generating has been presented by Baykeeper to the City of San Diego.