Up to $1.8 billion more over five years would be available to communities nationwide for fighting algae-producing sewage overflows if legislation being reintroduced by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) is approved by Congress and signed into law by President Obama.

Mr. Brown discussed his plans for additional money in the Clean Water Affordability Act at a news conference today inside Toledo’s Collins Park Water Treatment Plant.

“We need to do more to address water quality at its source, by preventing the toxic runoff that causes the algal blooms,” Mr. Brown said. “But we also need to help the communities across Ohio that are struggling to afford expensive – but vital – renovations to outdated sewer systems. Too often, systems go without updates and repairs, and result in water contamination, like we have seen in Lake Erie…”

The Congressman was joined at the event by Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson, Chuck Campbell, acting commissioner of plant operations, and Ed Beczynski, who owns The Blarney and Focaccia’s downtown, who discussed how last summer’s water crisis affected his businesses.

The bill would authorize $1.8 billion over five years for a grant program to help financially distressed communities update their aging infrastructure by providing a 75/25 cost share for municipalities to use for planning, design, and construction to control combined and sanitary sewer overflows, according to a news release from Mr. Brown’s office.