Since the 1990s, algae blooms have become increasingly common each summer in western Lake Erie. Most pollution driving Lake Erie’s algae blooms comes from farm fields and feedlots in Ohio, where the biggest share of landmass drains into western Lake Erie. Ohio’s lack of progress on farm pollution is the key sticking point in a lawsuit by environmental groups who contend the state’s pollution reduction plans are designed to fail. About 6% of the farmland in the Western Lake Erie Basin, totaling 59,154 acres, is enrolled in the program, according to the department. Officials with the Michigan Farm Bureau contend that regulations are unnecessary.