Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool: Paint Peeling, New Algae Strain Identified, and a Second No-Bid Contract Under Scrutiny

The pool's problems have multiplied on two fronts since earlier coverage: the paint is now visibly peeling, and scientists have identified a second algae species taking hold after workers chemically killed the first one.

The Paint Is Coming Off

Photos and video published by Forbes show dark blue flaps peeling from the bottom of the pool and floating on the surface. This is the same blue coating applied under the renovation order from President Trump, who demanded the floor be painted "American Flag Blue" as part of a broader effort to beautify the National Mall ahead of the country's 250th anniversary.

What is causing the peeling is not yet established. The hydrogen peroxide workers poured into the pool — in large quantities, by multiple accounts — is one candidate. No federal official has said so on the record, and the National Park Service has not responded to press inquiries about the paint failure, according to Forbes.

A Second Algae Species Has Moved In

The Atlantic reported this week that workers largely succeeded in killing off the original cyanobacterial bloom using hydrogen peroxide. The problem: they created conditions favorable to a different organism. Water samples collected by The Atlantic from multiple sections of the pool and delivered to scientists at two separate labs identified Scenedesmus, a genus of green algae that scientists have nicknamed "Skinny Dead Mouse."

Hans W. Paerl, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, analyzed the samples. He found remnants of the prior cyanobacterial bloom, too degraded to fully identify, alongside the new growth. His assessment: the hydrogen peroxide treatment cleared the first invader and opened ecological space for the second.

The pool currently looks, in The Atlantic's description, like "a strange bit of modern art" — lighter green where treatment worked, dark oily sludge where it did not.

Safety Questions Without Answers

The Department of Interior told The Atlantic that "ongoing water testing is happening" but refused to release the results. NPS workers at the site could not confirm to The Atlantic whether the water is safe, despite children and ducks being photographed in or near it. Scientists who applied for permits to conduct independent testing have not had those permits granted as of this week.

That is a straightforward transparency failure. The federal government is spending $14.2 million of taxpayer money on this project, the pool sits on public land visited by millions of people, and the agency responsible will not say whether the water is safe to be near.

A Second No-Bid Contract, Another Donor Connection

The New York Times reported late Thursday that a $1.7 million no-bid contract to install a water-purification system was awarded to Greenwater Services, an Ohio-based firm owned by John J. Cafaro, identified by the Times as a longtime Trump supporter and major donor. An Interior Department spokesperson told the Times that Cafaro's firm was selected "because they had the expertise, workforce and materials," and said the official was unaware of Cafaro's political connections.

This follows the earlier scrutiny over the no-bid contract awarded to Atlantic Industrial Coatings — a Virginia company that had previously done work at one of Trump's golf clubs, as The Guardian noted. The sealant work was the bulk of what The Atlantic described as the $16.4 million renovation project.

Awarding no-bid contracts to companies with donor or business ties to a president is legal under certain procurement rules. No investigation, charge, or indictment related to either contract has been announced. The Interior Department has provided justifications for both awards. Those justifications may be entirely legitimate. The relevant question is whether the work was competitively evaluated and whether the outcomes justify the prices. Two sealing failures and a paint-peeling episode suggest the outcomes have not.

The Case for the Administration

The Interior Department has a defense. Algae blooms in the Reflecting Pool are not new. An Interior spokesperson told The Guardian that the pool faced algae problems after the Obama-era renovation as well, and that blooms have been recurring since 1922. The nanobubble water-treatment system being installed is, according to the department, specifically designed to prevent future recurrence. If that technology works as claimed, the current mess could be a short-term pain on the way to a genuinely improved facility. The administration also has a point that the pool had been neglected for years before this renovation.

What Is Actually Unresolved

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a nonprofit, filed suit in D.C. federal court before the renovation was completed, arguing that repainting the pool floor blue was "blatantly unlawful" and that the original dark-grey floor was a deliberate design choice that created the visual depth and reflection quality the pool is known for. That litigation is ongoing.

The most concrete open question: whether the Greenwater Services purification system, now being permanently installed according to the Interior Department, can hold off Scenedesmus and whatever comes after it — or whether the pool will cycle through species the way it has cycled through contractors.