Green algae return to reflecting pool days into Trump’s renovation

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Images of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool show that green algae have returned to the site on the National Mall despite President Trump’s renovations.

The project, which cost more than $13 million, included the addition of nanobubbler technology that has “successfully destroyed the algae,” according to the Interior Department.

A spokesperson told The Hill that “due to deploying the advanced nanobubbler technology” the algae are “dead” and “being vacuumed up as we speak.”

“We thank President Trump for fixing the Reflecting Pool for good,” the spokesperson added.

A federal contract between the Interior Department and Green Water Solutions says the new technology is intended to help weed out the algae by cutting down on its food supply.

The photosynthetic plant has been present at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool since it opened in 1922 and has plagued the site dating all the way up to 2012, when renovations were completed under the second Obama administration.

Katie Martin, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, told CNN the recent algae flare-ups were expected and are a “part of the normal startup process.”

“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,” she told CNN.

The National Park Service is set to be in charge of maintaining the site.

As a part of Trump’s renovations, the bottom of the pool was painted “American Flag” blue and leaks throughout the 2,028 foot-long site that holds approximately 6.75 million gallons of water were repaired.

An Interior Department spokesperson previously said the pool used to leak up to 16 million gallons of water per year.

In addition to repairing leaks in the structure, the Trump administration is preparing to fix leaky pipes in the fall, as reported by The New York Times.

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