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The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool still needs some algae emancipation.
Just days after the iconic Reflecting Pool reopened following President Trump’s $14 million renovation to seal the concrete bottom with an “American flag blue,” its familiar gnarly-looking green algae once again took over.
Algae has long been a perennial issue in the 6.7 million-gallon artificial shallow basin, which was first constructed in the early 1920s.
The National Park Service initially indicated the return of the green-looking water was the result of dormant algae that sat in the pipes for weeks and came roaring back after the massive pool was filled back up.
“It’s part of the normal startup process,” a spokesperson for the agency told CNN. “We are removing the algae, and the nanobubblers will maintain the pool and keep it algae-free.”
But many observers have noted that the mucky green algae appears to have remained just as entrenched over the weekend despite the cleanup efforts.
Under the Obama administration, the US spent $34 million fixing the Reflecting Pool’s piping and filtration system to circulate water from the Tidal Basin. That renovation was intended to fix its persistent algae and leak problem.
Both issues returned.
Trump often poked at his predecessors for the “disgusting,” “filthy,” and “dirty” conditions the pool was in. At one point, he claimed that his planned beautification project would only cost $1.5 million to $2 million.
He claims to have rejected a proposal for a $300 million overhaul to replace the pool’s bottom with stone. Instead, he opted to reseal the gaps and add a vaunted “American flag” blue-tinted coating on the bottom.
Additionally, the Trump administration planned to install a $1.7 million upgraded ozone nanobubbler filtration system, which is intended to disperse tiny oxygen bubbles to undercut algae’s food supply, according to online federal contracting records.
It’s not clear if that beefed-up ozone nanobubbler filtration system has been installed yet.
A critical goal of Trump’s beautification project was to stop the leaking in the pool, which many experts have blamed on the gaps between the expansion joints as well as its piping system.
Prior to Trump’s latest renovations, the Reflecting Pool leaked some 16 million gallons of water every year, according to the Department of the Interior.
Some have argued that the leaky pipes that help push out four million gallons of water roughly every three days are also to blame for the algae, in addition to the leaks, because they undermine the filtration system.
The Trump administration is planning to repair those pipes in the fall, according to the Interior Department.
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