{"id":3928,"date":"2026-06-25T17:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:37:00","slug":"park-service-will-drain-repair-reflecting-pool-after-july-fourth-court-filing-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3928","title":{"rendered":"Park Service will drain, repair Reflecting Pool after July Fourth, court filing says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>\n            The National Park Service will drain and repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after July Fourth celebrations, the agency\u2019s deputy director for operations said in a court filing Wednesday.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3926\">I spent 60 days trying to improve my posture. Here\u2019s what happened<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThe National Park Service plans to begin draining the reflecting pool following the Independence Day celebration to conduct repairs, including assessing and repairing any damage to the lining,\u201d NPS Deputy Director for Operations Frank Lands said in the filing.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The filing provides a firm timeline for when pool repairs will begin as President Donald Trump said on Truth Social Tuesday that it would be drained \u201ceither immediately before or after the Fourth of July.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Lands, in the filing, also furthered the Trump administration\u2019s allegations of vandalism, saying in the filing that about \u201c70 fence post tops were thrown into the pool,\u201d and a caulk over the foam sealant \u201cwas cut with a sharp knife or razor.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The deputy director\u2019s declaration was filed as part of an ongoing legal battle over the pool, which has been riddled with issues in recent weeks from claims of vandalism to algae bloom and peeling blue material.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            A nonprofit sued the Trump administration last month over the president\u2019s order to paint the pool blue, arguing that the project violates federal laws requiring the Interior Department to complete a consultation process that includes notifying the public and getting input from other federal agencies before beginning the work.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            On Monday, lawyers for the nonprofit said in their own filing that recent developments reinforce the need to require the administration to follow certain procedural steps.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            But lawyers for the administration argued Wednesday that the problems plaguing the pool \u201chave nothing at all to do with the legality of the agency decision that Plaintiffs challenge.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Trump took a personal interest in the pool earlier this year as part of his efforts to \u201cbeautify\u201d the nation\u2019s capital. In late March, he said on Truth Social that he was working to fix the pool along with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The pool had previously gone through a two-year renovation in 2012 during the Obama administration.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            In the weeks that followed, Trump expanded the scope of the project and ordered cosmetic changes, including painting the bottom of the pool a shade of blue that resembles the American flag\u2019s blue field.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The renovation was also expedited so it would be completed before the country\u2019s 250th anniversary.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            But signs that the project did not go according to plan emerged just a day after the reservoir was filled earlier this month with quite a bit of algae visible from the water\u2019s edge.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Within days, clumps of algae took over the pool, prompting the administration to send in workers to vacuum it out, install a filtration system known as the \u201cozone nanobubbler\u201d and dump gallons of hydrogen peroxide in the pool.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Last week, blue material at the bottom of pool began peeling off. The president then said several people were arrested for vandalizing the pool.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3904\">Service members would be able to sue the military over sexual assault and harassment under bipartisan bill<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            An Interior Department spokesperson told CNN Thursday there have been 18 police reports filed for vandalism of the pool, adding that seven people were arrested.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            In Wednesday\u2019s filing, Lands said on June 9, US Park Police responded to an NPS report of a cut in a caulk over the pool\u2019s foam sealant.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Trump has repeatedly mentioned a \u201cgash\u201d in the pool as he continues to rail against alleged vandalism of a project he was personally invested in. He has offered varying descriptions \u2014 first calling it a 250-foot cut and then increasing that measurement. He later said there were \u201cactually numerous slashes over a very long 350 foot length.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Wednesday\u2019s filing did not provide any details about the length of the supposed cut.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The New York Times reported earlier this week that internal government documents showed that NPS workers \u201cfound two cuts in sections of foam between the pool\u2019s expansion joints,\u201d each 171 feet long. However, the Times said, the documents did not make any allegations about how these reported cuts ended up in the pool.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Earlier this week, CNN spoke with several visitors, a majority of whom were not pleased with the renovation.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Mallory Boyd, 60, a lifelong DC resident who remembers riding her bike along the pool as a child, called the renovation a \u201cwaste\u201d of taxpayer dollars.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI think that it is a travesty that we are spending as taxpayers this much money on a restoration that was afoul and for something that was not necessary,\u201d she told CNN on Tuesday.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Meanwhile, Tad Wagner, who is visiting Washington, DC, from Kansas, was satisfied with the pool.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI\u2019ve read a couple of reports that they spent a lot of money to redo it. I think it looks good,\u201d Wagner said, adding that claims that the pool has been vandalized were \u201creally disappointing.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Jaclyn MacDonald, who traveled from upstate New York to see the pool, stressed to CNN on Tuesday that the debate surrounding the pool is history in the making.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Describing the pool as \u201cpretty gross,\u201d she added: \u201cI told my kids that, you know, one day we\u2019re going to read about this in history books, we\u2019re going to read about what happened to this Reflecting Pool and the national disgrace that it is, and I want to be able to say that I was there.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<div>\n<p>CNN\u2019s Michael Williams, Katelyn Polantz, Devan Cole and Daniel Dale contributed to this report. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3902\">Trump administration identifies more than 500 migrant children for removal from the US, senator says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Park Service will drain and repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after July Fourth celebrations, the agency\u2019s deputy director for operations said in a court filing Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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