DETROIT The Trump administrations reported proposal to slash Environmental Protection Agency funding could spell major problems for the Great Lakes.

President Donald Trumps administration is looking to chop 25 percent from the agencys budget. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative would see the biggest funding cut, to just $10 million in fiscal 2018 from its nearly $300 million allocation this year a 97 percent reduction, according to The Oregonian, which first reported details on funding proposals for several dozen programs last week. Other parts of the EPA budget would roll back regulatory work aimed at curbing climate change .

The Great Lakes initiative started in 2010 and has directed more than $2 billion toward protecting the lakes, the largest surface freshwater source in the world. The EPA partners with more than a dozen other federal agencies and provides local grants for projects like controlling invasive species and managing watersheds to minimize pollution.

A focus is on restoring so-called areas of concern that have been damaged by decades of industrial pollution. The EPA spent $90 million addressing areas of concern last year . Several of the areas have improved enough to be taken off the list since the restoration initiative began in 2010.

The EPA budget cuts were included in an internal recommendation from the Office of Management and Budget that the National Association of Clean Air Agencies obtained and shared with The Oregonian. The association confirmed the figures to The Huffington Post. The EPA can still contest the draft cuts, and Congress ultimately approves a final budget. But the proposed massive reduction concerns researchers in the Great Lakes region.

If something happens to the EPA and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, its going to be public health that suffers, said Bradley Cardinale, a University of Michigan ecologist. This is going to result in a lot of job loss, a lot of pollution and reverting us back to many of the problems we had when Lake Erie once caught on fire because it was so polluted.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration receives funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, including money for NOAAs Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The lab monitors harmful algae blooms in Lake Erie , which in 2014 were so severe that more than 400,000 people in the Toledo, Ohio, area were without drinking water for several days.