Reflecting Pool looks 'like vomit,' visitors say; crews continue cleaning job

WASHINGTON - Crews continued work to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Friday, after green blooms appeared in the water earlier this week. The work comes after a $14 million renovation.

The backstory:

President Donald Trump announced plans to beautify the Reflecting Pool in April. At the time, he said it would cost about $1.5 million. The plans, Trump said, included power washing and fumigating the pool, before coating it in an "American flag blue" rubber layer.

The project took longer than expected, and ended up costing much more than initial estimates — approximately $14 million.

The pool was refilled on June 4.

What we know:

Algae started to bloom just days later, turning the water green. And now, the blue rubber layer is peeling.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Water begins flowing into Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after renovations

Crews were seen on the National Mall Friday, vacuuming algae out of the pool, though some visitors noticed it was "still green."

What they're saying:

Several tourists and visitors stopped at the Reflecting Pool on Friday.

Kevin Stout said he "had to see for myself. I couldn't believe it, that there was algae. Then [there were] people trying to clean it like a swimming pool."

Kavan Hicks, another visitor, said the pool "looks disgusting. It looks green, like vomit. We spent all this money to get it blue and look at it."

Other passersby even wrote profanities in the algae.

Dig deeper:

Swimming Pool Steve, a pool specialist on YouTube, says that the algae is likely the result of a common phenomenon called "New Pond Syndrome."

"When you start up a clear water, open-air environment like this for the first time, it can get fast-growing algae outpacing everything else," he said. "Then, you have this huge algae bloom basically immediately upon filling the system." 

Algal blooms are not new to the Reflecting Pool. The Washington Post reported Friday that this algae is the most recorded in the month of June in at least the last five years.

Experts say the algae isn't harmful. Rosalina Stancheva Chrisotva is a professor of aquatic ecology at George Mason University. She recently took a sample from the Reflecting Pool and found the algae to be "completely harmless."

Dig deeper:

On Friday, Trump shared a video on Truth Social showing him filling the pool with what appeared to be someone's tears. 

Earlier this week, the Interior Department said on X that "advanced nanobubbler technology effectively killed the algae," adding that the water was "crystal clear."

Crews were in the pool Friday, the Interior Department said, to vacuum the dead algae. 

FOX 5 has reached out to the National Park Service and the Interior Department for comment Friday, but has not heard back.

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