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In order to establish the status of metal contamination in surface waters in the coastal ocean off Los Angeles, California, we determined their dissolved and particulate pools and compared them with levels reported in the 1970s prior the implementation of the Clean Water Act. These measurements revealed a significant reduction in particulate toxic metal concentrations in the last 33 years with decreases of ∼100-fold for Pb and ∼400-fold for Cu and Cd. Despite these reductions, the source of particulate metals appears to be primarily anthropogenic as enrichment factors were orders of magnitude above what is considered background crustal levels. Overall, dissolved trace metal concentrations in the Los Angeles coastal waters were remarkably low with values in the same range as those measured in a pristine coastal environment off Mexico's Baja California peninsula. In order to estimate the impact of metal contamination on regional phytoplankton, the internalization rate of trace metals in a locally isolated phytoplankton model organism (Synechococcus sp. CC9311) was also determined showing a rapid internalization (in the order of a few hours) for many trace metals (e.g., Ag, Cd, Cu, Pb) suggesting that those metals could potentially be incorporated into the local food webs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]