Elevated concentrations of metals including aluminum, arsenic, and lead were identified by Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency staff in the San Juan River from below the Navajo Dam, through the Navajo Nation to Mexican Hat, Utah in the Four Corners Region of the United States (Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah). An interdisciplinary team applied approaches and principles of geology, geochemistry, geomorphology, hydrology, and statistics to gain a better understanding of the tributaries supplying the source(s) of metals to the San Juan River. 15 sites along the San Juan River were sampled by the equal width increment method and composited in a churn during a baseflow synoptic sampling campaign in February 2021 (USGS, 2018). Unfiltered water samples were collected in single-siphon samples and by grab sample at 59 ephemeral and perennial tributaries to the San Juan River in 2021 and 2022. Eighteen surface water sites along the San Juan River were sampled as grab samples in 2021 and 2022. The samples were analyzed for major and trace cations by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) at the US Geological Survey Analytical Chemistry Laboratory in Denver, Colorado. A total of 765 unfiltered samples were analyzed.