Reflecting Pool Turns Green Again After $1.7 Million Cleanup System Was Shut Off for Repairs
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 12
Reflecting Pool Turns Green Again After $1.7 Million Cleanup System Was Shut Off for Repairs
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 12
Summary
Within days of Greenwater’s nanobubble system being turned off ahead of draining and coating repairs, the Reflecting Pool again appeared green and murky, with the bottom no longer visible.
Greenwater said a temporary shutdown on June 12 had already triggered an algae bloom within 24 hours, underscoring how quickly the pool regreens without treatment even after a permanent system was installed.
The company received an expedited no-bid $1.7 million contract after the pool’s $14 million renovation was followed by its worst algae outbreak in at least five years, according to a Washington Post satellite-data analysis.
That award came despite Greenwater’s troubled 2025 no-bid Tijuana River pilot, where storms, trash and flooding damaged equipment and cut short a sewage-treatment test that had drawn internal skepticism from federal scientists.
Greenwater, owned by Trump donor J.J. Cafaro, has received $2.8 million in federal contracts across the two projects, adding political scrutiny as Interior prepares the pool for another repair cycle before the 250th celebrations.