House Republican: Let Reflecting Pool ‘go’ and ‘create an ecosystem’

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday had an outside-the-box idea to address algae growth in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

“Honestly, I think it’d be cool if they just let it go and create an ecosystem, have fish in there and everything. … I think that’d be a really … cool way to go,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill, according to MeidasTouch.

Renovations on the Reflecting Pool wrapped up earlier this month, with Atlantic Industrial Coatings receiving more than $14.6 million through a federal contract for the project.

The project included repainting the base of the pool a shade of blue to match the American flag. The paint, however, began peeling off the bottom of the pools days after the project finished.

The water in the 2,028-foot pool also turned green due to an algal bloom after the renovation ended. The National Park Service deployed hydrogen peroxide and a nanobubble ozone technology to kill the algae and other contaminants.

Over the weekend, bystanders found one dead duck floating in the pool and two dead ducks in Constitution Gardens close to the site.

City Wildlife, an animal rescue group based in Washington, D.C., said it submitted necropsy samples from the two ducks found in the gardens and “cannot comment on the cause of those deaths until results are received.” The group was unable to comment on the cause of death for the duckling found in the pool.

President Trump, meanwhile, has blamed vandalism for the issues at the pool. The Trump administration announced the arrests of six individuals in connection to vandalism at the site.

Burchett said Tuesday there are “other methods” to address the algal bloom in the pool, such as chlorine and bleach. But he also acknowledged the reality of the outdoors.

“It’s algae and science. It’s just going to happen,” the Tennessee Republican noted.