This year's algae bloom in western Lake Erie is expected to be much larger than average and almost the size of the bloom in 2014 that shut down drinking water systems on Pelee Island along with southeast Michigan and northern Ohio.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is basing the prediction on factors that include the amount of rain that's fallen to send phosphorus from area farms into the waterway.
Officials say the biggest culprit when it comes to phosphorus getting into Lake Erie is the Maumee River in Ohio and Indiana.