diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/oneoffprojects/walkers/AlleleBalanceHistogramWalker.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/oneoffprojects/walkers/AlleleBalanceHistogramWalker.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bf3b0c0e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/oneoffprojects/walkers/AlleleBalanceHistogramWalker.java
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+package org.broadinstitute.sting.oneoffprojects.walkers;
+
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.contexts.AlignmentContext;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.contexts.ReferenceContext;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.contexts.StratifiedAlignmentContext;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.refdata.RefMetaDataTracker;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.refdata.RodVCF;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.walkers.DataSource;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.walkers.RMD;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.walkers.Requires;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.walkers.RodWalker;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.BaseUtils;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.genotype.vcf.VCFGenotypeRecord;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.genotype.vcf.VCFRecord;
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.pileup.PileupElement;
+
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Set;
+
+/**
+ * Created by IntelliJ IDEA.
+ * User: chartl
+ * Date: Jan 26, 2010
+ * Time: 3:25:11 PM
+ * To change this template use File | Settings | File Templates.
+ */
+@Requires(value= DataSource.REFERENCE,referenceMetaData = {@RMD(name="variants",type= RodVCF.class)})
+public class AlleleBalanceHistogramWalker extends RodWalker<Map<String,Double>, Map<String,Set<Double>>> {
+
+
+    public Map<String,Set<Double>> reduceInit() {
+        return new HashMap<String,Set<Double>>();
+    }
+
+    public Map<String,Set<Double>> reduce(Map<String,Double> alleleBalances, Map<String,Set<Double>> aggregateBalances ) {
+        if ( alleleBalances != null ) {
+            for ( String name : alleleBalances.keySet() ) {
+                if ( alleleBalances.get(name) != null ) {
+                    aggregateBalances.get(name).add(alleleBalances.get(name));
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        return aggregateBalances;
+    }
+
+    public Map<String,Double> map(RefMetaDataTracker tracker, ReferenceContext ref, AlignmentContext context) {
+        RodVCF vcfRod = (RodVCF) tracker.lookup("variants",null);
+        if ( vcfRod == null ) {
+            return null;
+        }
+        VCFRecord record = vcfRod.getRecord();
+
+        return getAlleleBalanceBySample(record,ref,context);
+    }
+
+    private HashMap<String,Double> getAlleleBalanceBySample(VCFRecord vcf, ReferenceContext ref, AlignmentContext context) {
+        Map<String, StratifiedAlignmentContext> sampleContext = StratifiedAlignmentContext.splitContextBySample(context.getBasePileup(),null,null);
+        HashMap<String,Double> balances = new HashMap<String,Double>();
+        for ( String sample : vcf.getSampleNames() ) {
+            balances.put(sample, getAlleleBalance(ref,sampleContext.get(sample),vcf.getGenotype(sample)));
+        }
+
+        return balances;
+    }
+
+    private Double getAlleleBalance(ReferenceContext ref, StratifiedAlignmentContext context, VCFGenotypeRecord vcf) {
+        int refBases = 0;
+        int altBases = 0;
+        for ( PileupElement e : context.getContext(StratifiedAlignmentContext.StratifiedContextType.COMPLETE).getBasePileup() ) {
+            if ( BaseUtils.basesAreEqual( e.getBase(), (byte) ref.getBase() ) ) {
+                refBases++;
+            } else if ( BaseUtils.basesAreEqual(e.getBase(), (byte) vcf.toVariation(ref.getBase()).getAlternativeBaseForSNP() ) ) {
+                altBases++;
+            }
+        }
+
+        if ( refBases > 0 || altBases > 0) {
+            return ( ( double ) altBases ) / ( ( double ) altBases + ( double ) refBases );
+        } else {
+            return null;
+        }
+    }
+
+
+}