Last year was the worst season of toxic algal blooms in Lake Erie in decades and the International Joint Commission wants to know how much that hurt the economy on both sides of the border.

'It could easily be tens of millions of dollars,' John Nevin, the public affairs advisor for the IJC's Great Lakes regional office in Windsor, said Monday.

That dollar figure has never been calculated for Canada and the United States and could spur the governments to action, he said.

'What it cost last year is a cost of inaction,' Nevin said. 'If we don't do anything we have the potential of incurring that cost and more in the future.'

via Have your say on harmful algae in Lake Erie | Windsor Star.