No-bid contract to turn DC’s reflecting pool blue goes to firm with ties to Trump | Washington DC
Donald Trump’s latest beautification plan for Washington, D.C. – the restoration of the 600-foot-long reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial – has been met with allegations that a $6.9 million contract to carry out the project was hastily awarded to a company that renovated the swimming pool at the president’s Virginia golf course.
The New York Times reported Awarded a no-bid contract for the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool Atlantic Industrial CoatingsBased in New Canton, Virginia, on April 3 — even though company records show no previous federal contract was awarded.
Curtis Wood, one of the company’s owners, declined to comment to the Times about the contract.
Maintaining the pool’s clarity for reflection has been a challenge since it was built in 1922. It is 18 inches to 30 inches deep, holds approximately 6.75 million gallons of water, and has no natural flow. In Washington’s hot, humid summer, the pool turns green with algae.
Barack Obama’s presidential administration spent more than $35 million to solve the algae problem, but the problem persisted. Joe Biden’s administration has chosen to drain and refill it year after year. In addition to the algae problem, the pool leaks 16 million gallons of water each year, forcing the National Park Service (NPS) and ultimately taxpayers to replace it.
There are signs that the pool’s clarity has become an obsession for Trump, among other projects the president is keen on, including the construction of a vast White House ballroom and a “liberty arch” that would rival or surpass the Arc de Triomphe in Paris ahead of the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations in the summer.
“You will have a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, just as it should be,” Trump said in April. “It’s actually better than ever.”
Trump also hinted that he knew someone who could help. “I have a guy who is incredibly talented at building swimming pools,” Trump said. “He looked at it. He called me. He said, ‘Sir, we can do something about this.'”
Trump said he suggested making the pool turquoise “like the Bahamas,” but settled on the contractor’s suggestion of “American flag blue.”
President recently sent an AI-generated image of himself and vice president J.D. Vance on a gold inflatable pool chair; secretary of state Marco Rubio; interior secretary Doug Burgum; and an unidentified woman in a checkered bikini relaxing in a light blue version of a reflecting pool.
Trump said in early spring that he decided to paint the reflective pool blue. The Times found that the administration used a federal contracting exemption designed to prevent “monetary or other serious harm to the government” to award the contract without seeking competing bids.
“This project is now being completed at ‘Trump pace’ to ensure the iconic landmark is fully restored ahead of its 250th anniversary. [US anniversary] “Congratulations,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement to the Times.
In addition to roughing up planning regulations by paving over the Rose Garden, demolishing the East Wing to make room for the ballroom, and erecting a statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds, Trump has also come under fire for his pool project.
Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the Public Workers for Environmental Responsibility, told the Times that the renovations and changes “have turned into a secret project in which the president’s friends and associates are rewarded with no public scrutiny.”
But it’s not clear that painting the pool blue will solve the pool’s main problem: a filtration system that’s not up to the job. The pool may turn green whether or not its bottom is blue.
“Painting is not going to solve this problem,” Tim Auerhahn, president of the Aquatics Council, told the Times. Auerhahn also said Trump’s recent decision to visit the pool in a motorcade may have further increased the leaks.
“If this were my project, I would need immediate review,” Auerhahn added.
