Trump’s $14M Reflecting Pool Project Couldn’t Stop Algae From Blooming In The DC Heat

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump’s $14 million Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation couldn’t stop algae from blooming in the D.C. heat and turning the water a murky shade of green once again.

The unsightly hue plagued the pool just in time for an estimated 125,000 people to descend on Washington for Trump’s “Freedom 250” UFC fights on the White House lawn for his birthday on Sunday — despite work crews spreading chlorine pellets to try to deter algae growth.

The Washington Post reported that the bloom “expanded between Wednesday and Thursday amid wet and warm weather.”

Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, said in a statement, “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.

“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.”

Whether the pool remains algae-free remains to be seen, however.

As Trump was having the pool bottom coated a shade of “American flag blue” to show off the “beautiful, clean water,” The New York Times raised concerns about what the renovation project was lacking.

According to the paper, the project ignored a “major underlying problem” with old, leaky pipes that it said would still allow algae to grow and cover up its new blue shade.

Experts told the Times that unless the underlying problem with the leaky pipes was fixed, “the algae could come back.”

“If that happens, the pool’s newly waterproofed blue floor could again be invisible under a layer of green murk,” the report said, a prediction that came true just days after the pool was refilled.

During Trump’s first term, the Park Service said, “the only solution was to replace thousands of feet of pipe. But it has still not done so,” the report said, adding, “The Trump administration has said it plans to have that work begin in the fall, but has declined to give details.”

The administration offered a no-bid contract to a Virginia company that hiked the prices from $1.8 million to $13.1 million in an effort to finish the job before the country’s birthday celebrations. The final price was closer to $14.2 million.

To help justify the cost, Trump claimed that the blue coating will last for 40 or 50 years and “there’ll be no leaks, there’ll be no anything.”

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