This paper established the method for preconcentration and determination of heavy metals such as Zn, Cu, Co, Mn, Ni Cd, Pb in water samples by solid phase extraction (SPE) with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry(ICP-AES). In this experiment, Dowex 50WX8 strong acid cation exchange resin was used and by optimizing the conditions of preconcentration and eliminating the interference of coexisting ions, the optimum sample pH, sample flow rate, eluent type and concentration, sample volumes were determined with 3.0~4.0, 3.0 mL·min-1, 3.0 mol·L-1 HNO3 and 200 mL, respectively. For this method, the detection limit and quantitation limit of each element were 0.09～0.45 and 0.31～1.50 μg·L-1, respectively. The recoveries and relative standard deviations RSD (n=6) were 95.3%～104.2% and 1.25%～4.12%. The water samples of different parts were determined by this method and compared with the direct determination by ICP-MS, the results of the both methods were basically identical. All of these indicated that the detection limit and quantitative limit in this method could meet the requirements for determination of heavy metals in water samples. The accuracy and precision of the method were high which were suitable for the determination of Zn, Mn, Cu, Co, Ni, Cd, Pb in water samples.