Additional Coverage:
- Tourists ‘exacerbate’ reflecting pool issue by peeling off paint and taking it home as a souvenir (themirror.com)
Visitors to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., have been observed peeling off chunks of the pool’s recently refurbished coating, seemingly to keep as souvenirs. This activity comes just days after the pool was refilled following a widely publicized renovation.
CNN correspondent Tom Foreman reported from the scene, pointing out a loose flap of sealant floating in the water. He emphasized caution, noting he avoided disturbing it further to prevent worsening the condition. “We’ve been very careful here not to pull at this because we don’t want to make anything worse, but this is just a loose flap of what appears to be that sealant down here in the water, just flapping like that,” Foreman explained.
Foreman also described visitors tearing off pieces of the material, likely contributing to the damage. “There have been tourists coming along, tearing off pieces to take as souvenirs.
Did they cause this problem? Maybe.
Did they make it worse? Possibly.
We don’t have definitive proof that this is the sealant, but it certainly looks like it.”
Concerns about the pool’s condition have grown following the circulation of a video showing the newly applied blue paint peeling away in large sections. The clip raised questions about the durability of the renovation, especially with the busy summer tourist season underway.
In addition to the peeling paint, the pool is battling a visible algal bloom, giving the water a cloudy, greenish-yellow tint. This discoloration affects the pool’s role as a reflective surface for the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.
National Park Service teams and contractors have been working extensively to restore the pool’s appearance, employing dredging, vacuuming, and chemical treatments. Foreman described the cleanup efforts as “labor-intensive and slow-going,” with no guarantee the algae won’t quickly return.
Crews are using ozone treatments and hydro-vacuums to break up and remove the algae, but the microscopic spores responsible for the bloom make the problem challenging to control. “They’re pumping oxygen into the water in the form of ozone to try to break up the chemical process that forms these algae blooms,” Foreman said, “and they’re using these water vacuums to suck up much of the green algae. But it could be forming again behind them because it’s basically microscopic in spore form.”
Onlookers were candid about the pool’s condition. “It looks bad.
I just see green, green slime,” one man commented. Another visitor added, “Pouring all that peroxide into it clearly didn’t help.
I feel for the ducks.”
Algae growth in the Reflecting Pool is a recurring issue, but the recent renovation and increased public scrutiny have highlighted the ongoing maintenance challenges. Pool expert Cochise Wanzer II, president of the Pool Service Company in Arlington, Virginia, explained that the pool’s water source complicates algae control efforts.
“You’re basically taking natural, untreated river water, pumping it in, and expecting it to do something different from what it would do out in the open,” Wanzer said. He also noted that the pool’s newly darkened bottom may be contributing to the problem by raising water temperatures, which can encourage algae growth. “Now that the bottom is nice and dark, it elevates the temperature and the algae grows better,” he added.