Weeks after a renovation meant to clean up Washington, DC’s Reflecting Pool for America’s 250th anniversary, the water has turned green again. On June 19, visitors found National Park Service crews vacuuming algae, police and National Guard monitoring the site
On June 19, the Reflecting Pool wasn’t behaving like the calm centerpiece it was built to be. Instead of drawing eyes across the National Mall as Washington. DC’s monuments traditionally do. it pulled attention down—toward the shallow water. the murky green patches. and the people trying to scrub them away.
Dozens of National Park Service workers stood in and around the pool with equipment, hoses, and cleaning systems spread across the floor. Some sections looked newly cleaned, with dark-blue surfacing just visible beneath algae. But other areas were still covered in green.
The renovation behind the new look was meant to be seen from a distance. It was ordered by the Trump administration ahead of America’s 250th anniversary and was aimed at making the pool’s floor “American Flag Blue.” The administration initially announced the project would cost $1.8 million. but later reporting said contracts to complete the work exceeded $16 million. Weeks after the project’s conclusion, the pool has already turned green again.
Visitors didn’t just watch the monuments—they watched the repair crews. I saw groups and individual visitors standing near the water, taking pictures and videos of the algae-filled surface. One passerby, speaking while on the phone, said they had come only to see what the water looked like. A dad posed with his young daughter with the pool in the background—then made their message clear with a big thumbs down. Some people took it further, with one visitor from Michigan putting algae-filled water into a plastic bag to take home.
The pool’s troubles are not new. The algae blooms that have long plagued the Reflecting Pool were part of what the renovation was meant to address. but days after the pool was refilled in early June. green blooms returned. The structural issues thought to drive rapid algae growth date back to the pool’s construction. including unstable mudflats on which it was built. The concrete slabs at the bottom have developed cracks and leaks over the past century, The New York Times reported. The blue resurfacing from Trump’s renovation coated the slabs with sealant but did not address the structural issues. the Times reported.
Interior communications director Kate Martin said the algae now visible is residual and came from reactivated supply lines after the repairs, calling it part of the pool’s “normal startup process.”
Even as workers tackled the algae, some visitors and observers were focused on the renovation materials themselves. On June 19, I noticed the blue coating cracking and peeling. Some visitors have spotted large chips of the blue pool floor surfacing. and peeled pieces of the blue liner have been seen breaking away and floating in the pool. including a piece photographed by The Washington Post.
David Hearn. a 67-year-old former Olympic canoe racer from Bethesda. Maryland. told the Associated Press that on June 19 he reached into the pool to examine the peeling coating. briefly touched a piece still attached. and then let it go after a park worker told him to. Hearn said. “I reached down to see what it felt like.” “It was very rubbery.” Soon after. he was arrested for vandalism. which he denied to ABC News. saying he did not rip. damage. or take any part of the pool. He was later released and will appear in court on July 9.
What unfolded around the pool was as much security and symbolism as it was maintenance. During the visit, National Guard members and police officers patrolled the area. Workers cleaning the pool floor were surrounded by visitors and protesters, giving the site a tense, spectacle-like atmosphere. The Trump administration has also said arrests were made related to alleged vandalism: earlier this week. it announced the arrest of six people connected with alleged vandalism of the pool. and the president said on Truth Social the pool included a 250-foot gash made by “a very sharp knife or razors.” The administration has not provided evidence for the claims.
Alongside scrutiny over costs and contracts, questions have also surfaced about the cleanup itself. The Interior Department deployed hydrogen peroxide and nanobubble ozone technology to address the algae. Workers used systems to vacuum algae off the pool floor. and the vacuumed. algae-filled water was pumped into nearby drains—drawing as much attention from visitors as the original algae did. The Washington Post later reported that DC environmental officials planned to investigate the discharge after visitors expressed concern.
The site has also become a stage for pushback. Some protesters stood in support of the algae in opposition to the administration’s renovation efforts. During the visit, a pair of protesters marched near the pool holding a “Team Algae” sign and chanting, “Grow, algae, grow.”
Rules and reality collided too. National Park Service regulations state that people are prohibited from “bathing. swimming. or wading” in fountains or pools on the National Mall. with limited exceptions that do not include the Reflecting Pool. The regulations do not specifically address briefly touching or collecting water from the Reflecting Pool. Other visitors told Newsweek that National Guard members at the pool said they could be detained for touching the water.
For the workers, it was the physical work—repeated, patient, and immediate—that dominated. One National Park Service employee who declined to share his name said that until July 4. repairs were expected to be worked on for 16 hours a day. with crews changing between two shifts. On June 19, during a hot, sunny, and humid day, the cleanup was constant. Watching them, the question kept coming back to the same nerve ending: how fast the algae would return. A visitor asked an NPS worker who was resting from vacuuming the pool floor. “How fast does the algae take to grow back?” He replied. “Seconds.”.
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Washington DC National Park Service algae blooms renovation costs Trump administration contracts hydrogen peroxide nanobubble ozone US Park Police National Guard protesters