Trump exposed for eye-watering taxpayer cost to clean up algae fiasco

U.S. National Park Service workers clean algae from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 16, 2026. REUTERS/Eric Lee

President Donald Trump spent $14.2 million to paint the Reflecting Pool a blue color. The water immediately turned green in the hot Washington D.C., sunshine. Now, taxpayers are funding millions more to fix the problem.

The cleanup adds another nearly $2 million to the cost of the renovations, the Columbus Post Dispatch reported. An Ohio company known as Green Water Services scored the contract.

The company claims on its website that it has the "only water purification system in the world whose patented technology is backed by government and academic research."

A reporter witnessed workers pouring hydrogen peroxide into the reflecting pool on Tuesday. Staff have been scooping the algae, vacuuming the algae and also deploying the "patented technology" from Green Water Services.

The CEO of Green Water is Al George, who was also quoted by a New York Times report a month ago as bragging "about the prospect that the government would hire the company to bring mobile, trailer-based filtration systems — seemingly a temporary stopgap — to treat the pool’s water."

As recently as mid-May, the administration knew there would be a continuing algae problem. The public contract information on the project shows that their work on the reflecting pool will go on through September 30.

George told the San Diego Union-Tribune in January that their technology can achieve an average 93 percent reduction in bacteria "on the days we treated."

"The technology uses self-contained units that require only electrical power to operate. The machines bring in air, remove nitrogen to create 95 percent pure oxygen, then feed that oxygen into an ozone generator. The ozonated water passes through a patented nanobubble generator that creates the microscopic bubbles as water is drawn in and expelled back out," the Union-Tribune explained.

When Trump announced the project, he bragged, "It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be waterproof. It's going to be reflecting again."

He wrote on Truth Social on May 16, "Also, went to a higher quality sealer with more reflectivity. Check it out before the Opening — It's a very exciting project!” the president said.

The Times also reported that these contracts were awarded through a no-bid process. Typically, the government will take several bids to compare the costs for the project and ensure they're getting the best deal. David Schutzenhofer, who manages Trump's golf and country club in New Jersey, was picked to spearhead the Reflecting Pool project.

The total project will now cost nearly $16 million.

The Washington Post recruited Alana Menendez, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences, to research the Reflecting Pool algae over the past several years using satellite data. The recent tests show 2026 is one of the top years for algae in the reflecting pool. The amount of algae generally follows the weather and the sunlight. So when the city experienced a heatwave in 2019-2021, the amount of algae in the pool also soared.

Around the time the pool was refilled, the city was facing another unseasonable heat spike.

From Your Site Articles