A few days after the $14 million renovation was completed, along came the algae in the D.C. heat. It’s being removed, an Interior spokeswoman said, and measures are in place to prevent it in the future.
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When renovations of the Reflecting Pool were completed last week, President Donald Trump praised its “beautiful, clean water.” Under his predecessors, Trump said, the pool was “Terrible. Disgusting … garbage ridden.”
Now, days after the pool was refilled, clumps of green algae have has been spotted throughout the water. Noticed on two separate visits to the Reflecting Pool this week, the algae coated several areas of the bottom of the pool, including the east and west ends, close to the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, and floated on the surface.
An algae spot near the World War II Memorial grew significantly bigger between a rainy Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, which was hot and muggy.
News photographers also captured images of buckets of Induclor, a chlorine compound used to control bacteria, algae, slime and fungi in bodies of water.
Trump officials have an explanation: “What you are seeing is residual algae from the supply lines which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place. It’s part of the normal startup process,” Katie Martin, an Interior Department spokesperson, said in a statement.
“We are removing the algae, and the nanobubblers will maintain the pool and keep it algae free. President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden.”
Trump on Thursday touted his changes to Washington, including his resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool’s basin.
“It always leaked because it was done in stone,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “Now it’s done properly. It’s not going to leak at all.”
When asked about the algae, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers replied in a statement: “President Trump used his expertise to deliver exquisite upgrades to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that Americans will enjoy for years to come. The public supports these long-overdue improvements to our nation’s capital, and hit pieces like this are exactly why trust in the media is at an all-time low.”
Algae has been a consistent problem for the pool, and quickly reappeared after a $34 million renovation that was completed in 2012.
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The plantlike aquatic organisms thrive on sunlight and heat, abundant in D.C.’s summer months. They are controlled through proper water filtration and chlorination, algaecide, and nanobubbles, tiny bubbles of oxygen that effectively cut off the algae’s food supply.
Trump has touted his rapid renovation of the reflecting pool as a playbook for how he wants to make over Washington: move quickly to launch and complete construction projects, even if it requires bulldozing through regulations and red tape.
Trump announced his plans to resurface the pool on April 23, saying the project would take about a week and cost less than $2 million. The project ultimately took six weeks and cost more than $14 million, drawing a lawsuit from historic preservationists who said Trump had flouted requirements for public comment and other necessary steps. Democrats also have pressed the White House on why the administration has issued no-bid contracts and rushed work on the reflecting pool and the president’s other construction projects.
“While it is important that we maintain our national landmarks as they age, the scale, cost, and permanence of these projects has revealed troubling patterns of waste, fraud, and abuse across these episodes,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), the top Democrat on the Senate’s permanent subcommittee for investigations, wrote in a letter Tuesday to Park Service leaders. The letter was shared with The Washington Post.
Trump has repeatedly defended his changes to the century-old pool as necessary, calling its water “filthy” and “disgusting,” and claiming that he has fixed the site’s repeated problems, such as persistent leaking.
“I’m looking at the Washington Monument and this thing is terrible. The water is dirty, there’s cartons of stuff in it, and everything is just so horrible,” the president said at the White House last month. “It’s a much better job. This will last for at least 50 years and you’ll never have a leak.”
White House officials this week echoed the president, saying that even critics should concede that Trump’s changes were for the better.
One official mocked the pool’s smell before Trump’s changes.
“I don’t think anyone can argue” with Trump’s renovations, the official said. The official declined to comment on the reappearance of algae.
The “American Flag Blue” paint — another of the president’s choices for the renovation — has maintained the pool’s mirror-like reflective qualities. But up close, the dark color is a high-contrast backdrop for bird droppings, which could also be observed this week, along with the families of ducks that had returned to the water.
