Trump administration blames Obama after ‘blue’ Reflecting Pool turns green after $14M refurb
The Trump administration has hit out at former President Obama after the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool water turned green, despite a much-touted $14 million renovation.
Work on the pool was completed last week, after President Donald Trump vowed to paint the space an “American flag blue.” However, the familiar green algae often spotted in the pool returned just days later.
In response, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior took a swipe at the Obama administration in a statement obtained by The New York Post.
“The nanobubbler technology has successfully destroyed the algae bloom that has plagued every pool reopening since 1922, most infamously, the Obama pool reopening that resulted in massive algae clumps taking over the pool’s surface,” the spokesperson said.
“Now, due to deploying the advanced nanobubbler technology, the algae is dead and being vacuumed up as we speak.”
The spokesperson went on to claim the National Park Service was “actually maintaining” the pool “versus previous administrations.”
According to online federal contracting records analyzed by the publication, the Trump administration spent $1.7 million on an upgraded ozone nanobubbler filtration system, aimed at dispersing oxygen bubbles to disrupt algae’s food supply.
Communications Director Katie Martin told CNN that the algae had been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction had been taking place, adding that the return of the aquatic organism was a “part of the normal start-up process.”
“We are removing the algae, and the nanobubblers will maintain the pool and keep it algae-free,” she added.
The Obama administration spent at least $34 million on a two-year reconstruction project that ended in 2012,The Associated Press reported, aimed at addressing issues such as stagnant water and the fact that the pool had begun to leak and sink into the land dredged from the Potomac River in order to build it.
Pipes underneath the National Mall bring the pool’s water to and from a nearby filtration plant, although they often leak. The Department of the Interior told The New York Times that it plans to repair those pipes in the fall.
Before the president’s latest renovations, the Reflecting Pool leaked around 16 million gallons of water every year, the Interior Department told The Post.
Trump touted the revamped reflecting pool in a Truth Social post Monday, as part of ‘tribute to America’ celebrations planned for July 4.
“On July 4th, at The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, in beautiful and safe Washington D.C., we are going to host the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a “TRIBUTE TO AMERICA.” the president wrote.
“Starting at 7 P.M. EST, this HUGE Celebration will honor our Country’s People, Spirit, Strength, Resolve, and Triumphs. With the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial and surrounding the beautifully new Reflecting Pool, more than 300 Members of our strong and talented Military Bands, Orchestras, and Ceremonial Units, will perform Patriotic Melodies and American Classics, and my Playlist (We will have none of those people that put you to sleep and constantly complain!), as we celebrate our Country, and Rally into the next 250 years.”
