'Layer of green murk' could plague Reflecting Pool due to Trump admin oversight: report

Alexander Willis
May 31, 2026


Workers continue renovations on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which is painted blue, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 2, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

The ongoing renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool being carried out by the Trump administration have yet to address a major “underlying problem,” according to documents obtained and reported on by The New York Times, a problem that if not addressed, could leave the floor of the iconic pool “invisible under a layer of green murk.”

“Twelve-inch pipes under the surrounding parkland are responsible for moving large volumes of water from the pool to [a] treatment plant and back again. When it works, that system is supposed to filter all of the pool’s four million gallons every three days or so,” reads the Times’ report.

“But these pipes often break and leak. The Park Service has said their plastic walls fail under pressure from the surrounding soil. When the pipes break, they have to be shut off, and the pool is disconnected from its filtration system. It is left stagnant, sometimes for weeks.”

And yet, the Trump administration has yet to replace what would be “thousands of feet of pipe," and while the administration has claimed to have “plans” to address the issue this fall, officials have “declined to give details," according to the Times.

Initially projected to cost $1.8 million, the cost of the Reflecting Pool renovations has since ballooned to $13.1 million. Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded the contract for the project by the Trump administration in a controversial no-bid contract that critics say bypassed the normal competitive bidding process. Trump has also denied knowing the contractor, despite previously praising them for having worked on a swimming pool at one of his golf clubs in Northern Virginia.

“If the pipes connecting the pool to the treatment plant are not fixed, experts on the pool say, the algae could come back,” the Times’ report reads. “If that happens, the pool’s newly waterproofed blue floor could again be invisible under a layer of green murk.”