WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump wanted the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool to look pristine. Photosynthesis, however, had other plans.
Days after the Trump administration completed a $14.2 million project to coat the reflecting pool’s concrete floor with a dark blue waterproofing material, clumps of algae appeared on the surface on Sunday and Monday, turning parts of the water a greenish hue.
Last week, the water mirror looked sparkling after the work, which aimed to correct two long-standing problems — leaks and algae blooms — before the country’s 250th birthday. But after several days of heat and humidity, the algae came back with a vengeance.
A spokeswoman for the Department of the Interior, which is responsible for managing the site, said the project included the successful installation of a water treatment system called a nanobubbler. According to her, the algae should disappear soon.
“With the deployment of advanced nanobubble technology, the algae has died and is being vacuumed up right now,” spokeswoman Katie Martin said in an email. “We thank President Trump for fixing the reflecting pool for good.”
Last week, Martin said the algae was “residual” and came from supply pipes that were left unused during the renovation.
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Trump said last month that the reflecting pool had been “filthy” and “dirty” for years. According to him, the changes would make the place “beautiful”, adding that the waterproofing material applied to the floor had a color called “American flag blue”.
To renovate the reflecting pool, the Trump administration awarded contracts without bidding to two directly chosen suppliers, bypassing the legal competition process under the justification of an urgent need. (The government said the urgency was due to the celebrations of the country’s 250th anniversary.)
The first non-bid contract went to the Virginia-based company Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which was tasked with sealing the leaky joints between the concrete slabs and applying the dark blue waterproofing material. The second went to Ohio-based Greenwater Services, responsible for installing an upgraded water purification system.
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Atlantic Industrial Coatings completed the work on June 4, and the reflecting pool was refilled shortly thereafter. Greenwater Services also completed installation of the new purification system.
On Sunday, employees from the National Park Service entered the body of water and appeared to remove some of the algae from the surface. They were accompanied by workers from Pearl Purity Water Solutions, a Maryland company that has had a contract to treat the site’s water since 2021.
Representatives from Greenwater Services and Pearl Purity Water Solutions did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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On Monday, as park workers continued to remove the algae, crowds of tourists walked around the reflecting pool in the summer sun. Bonnie Garvin, a teacher in Monticello, Georgia, said she wasn’t bothered by the greenish tint.
“We’re not swimming there, so it’s not really a problem,” Garvin said.
Jessica Lea, a therapist from Portland, Oregon, said she was disappointed on her first visit to the century-old monument.
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“It’s pretty swampy,” he said. “It could be cleaner. And I can’t even see any reflections.”
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