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- Just over a week after Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, algae has returned to affect the iconic landmark.
- The Trump administration is deploying hydrogen peroxide treatments and advanced filtration technology to combat the murky green water.
- Workers say cleaning the pool could take a lifetime despite officials saying new nanobubbler technology has destroyed the algae.
President Donald Trump’s more than $13 million Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation was completed just over a week ago, with its iconic 2,800 square feet refilled with 6.5 million gallons of clean water.
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But already it’s been hit with a problem that has haunted administrations for decades: algae.
Over the past week, the Trump administration has jumped into action, sending crews clad in hip-waders to vacuum up the clumps of algae and on Tuesday, dispatching workers to dump gallons of hydrogen peroxide in the pool.
Nevertheless, the pool has grown increasingly into a murky shade of green – calling into question whether the president’s goal of cleaning and beautifying a pool he once disparaged as “disgusting” and “not representative of the country” can ever really be met.
A worker who spoke to CNN on Tuesday quipped that it would take “an entire lifetime” to clean the pool.
The Department of Interior says “state of the art” filtration known as the “ozone nanobubbler” has been installed and is working.
“Due to deploying the advanced nanobubbler technology, the algae is dead and being vacuumed up as we speak,” a Department of Interior spokesperson told CNN. “The nanobubbler technology has successfully destroyed the algae bloom that has plagued every pool reopening.”
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The spokesperson also told CNN that hydrogen peroxide is being used as a “milder treatment” for algae in addition to the nanobubbler.
Other parties involved with the Reflecting Pool’s refurbishing distanced themselves or stayed mum on the algae problem.
“My company had nothing to do with water, only water proofing and water tightening,” Eddie Wood, of Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the company that resurfaced the pool, told CNN. He added that he is proud of the part of the work his company did on the project.
Public records show that an Ohio company, Greenwater Services, was hired to install the filtration system. Its website boasts that the company provides “the only water purification system in the world whose patented technology is backed by government and academic research” and that its “breakthrough solutions significantly reduce toxins, algae, microcystins, nitrates, and phosphates from contaminated water.”
The company did not return CNN’s request for comment about the current algae situation.
The White House did not comment on whether Trump is aware of cleanup efforts or has spoken to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about it, directing questions back to the Interior department.
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CNN’s Christine Lien and Abigail Roedersheimer