Local officials are hoping Congress will help provide funding to clean up algae bloom in Lake Erie.
Cleveland Water Alliance Director Bryan Stubbs testified before a committee Tuesday, asking for additional funding to resolve the issue of algal bloom.
The rapid increase of harmful algal bloom is sweeping across the United States, including Ohio.
Stubbs and others told a U.S. panel that beaches are closing, fish are dying, and people are becoming ill.
Stubbs said that his group is partnering with other Ohio and Michigan organizations to create sensoring technology that monitors the levels of water nutrients that feed algae in lakes.
The Cleveland Water Alliance is deploying this technology on Lake Erie to observe the harmful algal bloom (HAB), microsystems, and cyanotoxins in the water, he said.
Data products are also being developed to warn water utility companies when harmful toxins require treatment, according to Stubbs.
This problem increased over the past two decades. He said that if the algae is left unchecked then Ohio’s Lake Erie businesses and communities that rely on the lake for drinking water will suffer.
For more information on algal bloom, visit clevelandwateralliance.org
