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Twenty percent (20%) of annual deaths worldwide are attributed to microbial pathogens. Pathogenic illnesses pose major threats to the overall health and safety of humans. These illnesses can result in death, prolonged hospital stays, and increased hospital expenses. The goal of this research is to study the evolution and ecology of microorganisms and surveillance of human pathogens in local the ponds. Surveillance of pathogens can inform the local and global efforts for monitoring and supporting public health measures to fight diseases. Surveillance is the essential tool to inform policies, prevent infections and control responses. Samples were collected from four ponds in Jackson, TN: Lane College, Muse Park, Fairgrounds and Campbell Street Park. DNA was isolated from the water samples using ethanol precipitation followed by the ZymoBIOMICS DNA Miniprep kit. Samples were prepared for the whole genome sequencing by PCR using the Rapid Barcoding and the 16S PCR Barcoding kits from Nanopore to amplify the DNA samples. The metagenomic DNA was sequenced with the Nanopore M1KC MinION sequencer. The reads were then analyzed by the Epi2Me, What's in my pot (WIMP) or 16S Fastq workflows. All four of the ponds are known to have pathogenic in them. The Lane College Pond has Clostridium and Pseudomonas. The Fairgrounds Pond has Bacillus and Legionella. The Campbell Street Pond has Clostridium, Bacillus, Leptospira and Pseudomonas. The Muse Park Pond has Leptospira, Legionella, and Clostridium. Further studies can be done with this project to examine the concept of how pathogens affect microbiomes in an aquatic environment. This work is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation EES 2011938.