Washington DC’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is less than a week old, but is already the subject of controversy. The Trump administration spent millions to overhaul one of the most frequently visited landmarks in time for the nation’s 250th birthday.
Now, a viral video has prompted serious concern about the state of affairs. The internet is chiming in, and the public has expressed doubt that the situation is being handled with care.
The video, uploaded to X by Brian Krassenstein, shows employees of the National Park Service crouching around the stone perimeter of Washington, DC’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, pouring white jugs of 12% hydrogen peroxide into the water.
The roughly 6.5-million-gallon pool has turned a murky green due to an algae bloom. Park Service employees in yellow safety vests line the pool, standing side by side as onlookers and families move behind them, with some stopping to capture images of what they are witnessing.
Crews spent weeks painting the over 2,000-foot pool “American Flag Blue” at Trump’s request, for the nation’s 250th birthday. Work was completed last week after breaking ground in April, but the pool was infiltrated by algae immediately after.
Already, workers were skimming out clumps of algae from the pool on Wednesday – a day after it was refilled – and by Friday morning, it had returned.
An NPS worker stated, according to CNN, that the pool could take “a lifetime” to clean.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior is defending the method of operation. An NPS spokesperson has stated that the agency is using a combination of nanobubble technology and hydrogen peroxide as a measure that exceeds prior administrations’ efforts to manage the algae within the same pool, as per ABC News.
Oxygen radicals generated by hydrogen peroxide can kill algae by breaking down the cell walls, and the DOI states there will be no detrimental environmental effects to the pool’s surroundings.
Moreover, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the company that resurfaced the pool, denied responsibility for the issue. Eddie Wood told CNN: “My company had nothing to do with water, only waterproofing and water tightening.” Ohio-based Greenwater Services was the company contracted for installation of the filtration system, per public records.
Internet Reacts to Washington DC’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Algae Video
The clip sparked debate online, with some sympathizing with the workers while others questioned whether the fix would hold.
“This won’t work,” one commenter wrote. “You’d need an insane amount of hydrogen peroxide to kill all the algae in that volume of water – on the order of ~1000 gallons of 12% H2O2. And even if that worked it would only last a day or two. They’d have more luck dying the water blue.”
Another kept it relatable: “Me putting one vitamin gummy in my body after a weekend of partying thinking it’s making any difference at all.” One commenter was unmoved by the outrage: “BREAKING: Maintenance staff are doing their jobs.” Another went straight at the renovation itself: “In theory, couldn’t they have just done this first instead of painting the bottom for no reason at all?”
The algae issue is not the first of its kind post-renovation to the reflecting pool. A prior renovation of the pool under Obama in 2012 installed an ozone filtration system designed to manage the algae growth within the pool, but ultimately, the water had to be drained.
Experts say the darker color may be making things worse this time around. Algal biotechnology expert Alla Silkina explained to Newsweek that darker colors may absorb more sunlight and raise local temperatures, potentially contributing to the algae bloom. Nutrients and water circulation are considered the typical reasons for algae blooms.
