President Trump wanted the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial to look pristine. Photosynthesis had other plans.
Days after the Trump administration completed a $14.2 million project to coat the Reflecting Pool’s concrete floor with dark blue waterproofing material, clumps of algae dotted the surface on Sunday and Monday, giving parts of the pool a green hue.
The pool was gleaming last week after the work, which was meant to fix two longstanding problems, leaks and algal blooms, before the country’s 250th birthday. But after several hot and humid days, the algae returned in force.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, which manages the site, said the project involved the successful installation of a water-treatment system called a nanobubbler. She said the algae would be gone soon.
“Due to deploying the advanced nanobubbler technology, the algae is dead and being vacuumed up as we speak,” the spokeswoman, Katie Martin, said in an email. “We thank President Trump for fixing the Reflecting Pool for good.”
Last week, Ms. Martin had said the algae was “residual” and came from supply lines that sat dormant during the renovations.
President Trump said last month that the pool had been “filthy” and “dirty” for years. He said his changes would make the site “beautiful,” adding that the waterproofing material on its floor was a color called “American flag blue.”
To repair the pool, Mr. Trump’s administration awarded no-bid contracts to two handpicked vendors, bypassing a legally required process of seeking competitive bids because of what officials declared an urgent need. (The administration said the urgency was justified because of the nation’s 250th birthday party.)
The first no-bid contract went to a Virginia-based company, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, to seal leaky joints between the pool’s concrete slabs and coat the slabs with the dark blue waterproofing material. The second went to Ohio-based Greenwater Services to add an upgraded water-purification system.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings completed its work on June 4, and the pool was refilled soon after. Greenwater Services has also finished installing the new purification system.
On Sunday, workers with the National Park Service waded in the Reflecting Pool and appeared to skim some algae blooms off the surface. They were joined by workers with Pearl Purity Water Solutions, a Maryland-based company that has held a contract since 2021 to treat the pool’s water.
Representatives for Greenwater Services and Pearl Purity Water Solutions did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Monday, as Park Service workers continued to clear the algae, throngs of tourists strolled around the pool in the summer sun. Bonnie Garvin, a teacher from Monticello, Ga., said she was unbothered by the green hue.
“We’re not swimming in it, so it’s not really an issue,” Ms. Garvin said.
But Jessica Lea, a therapist from Portland, Ore., said she was disappointed by her first visit to the century-old landmark.
“It’s pretty swampy,” she said. “It could be cleaner. And I can’t see any reflecting.”
David A. Fahrenthold contributed reporting.
