One of the many canals popular for swimming. This one had high levels of arsenic.

Peep Under the Elbe was a project on water quality in the forgotten neighborhood of Wilhelmsburg in Hamburg. The city had given up monitoring the canals and wetterns in this area. Wilhelmsburg is an island neighborhood of immigrants and German working poor that is criss-crossed with polluted waterways. CAE attempted to find where the safest places were for the popular pastimes of swimming and fishing (often as a way to get fish a person could not otherwise afford), and where the most dangerous places were.

Popular fishing spot by the fat rendering plant.

Collecting water for testing in a wettern by a public housing complex.

CAE member tests bacteria levels on site.

Test strip measuring copper. Most all the canals had copper values to such an extent that it changed the water color.

Advanced lab testing.

Distributing water test kits and posing test results at a public housing complex

Distributing water test kits to local fishermen and discussing the state of the canals.

Results were also posted at popular fishing and swimming sites.