The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Sept. 3 that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will provide almost $12 million to federal and state agencies to protect public health by targeting harmful algae blooms in western Lake Erie. The funding is additional money that builds on current efforts to reduce algae blooms.

The problems reached critical mass earlier this year, when the drinking water of Toledo, Ohio, and throughout southeast Michigan was contaminated and could not be used even if boiled, adversely affecting more than 500,000 people. The area draws its drinking water directly from Lake Erie.

The new money will be used to expand monitoring and forecasting, increase incentives to farmers to reduce phosphorus runoffs that contribute to harmful algae blooms, and improve measurements.

Harmful algae blooms also create “dead zones” where no life can exist, harming the boating and fishing industries and many shoreline economies.