The Department of the Interior just billed taxpayers another $682,631 to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a project originally estimated at $1.8 million that has now ballooned past $15 million amid contractor errors, peeling paint, and toxic algae.
Federal spending records show the latest charge covers a "Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool flow valve replacement" under a contract between the DOI and Persimmon Grove LLC, a Virginia-based firm hired to maintain, repair, and rebuild the pool's pump and compressor systems. The repair work started September 10 and is scheduled to wrap up by October 15. Atlantic Industrial Coatings workers were still on site as of Thursday, months after the pool was supposed to be ready for America's 250th birthday celebrations on the Fourth of July.
The valve replacement is only the latest line item in a renovation that has turned into a running case study in cost overruns and poor execution. Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the firm responsible for repainting the pool floor in "American Flag Blue," is due to receive $14.7 million for its work, federal contract records show. Persimmon Grove separately collected $488,000 from the DOI to clean the nearby Constitution Garden Lake, which was drained and refilled ahead of the July Fourth deadline.
President Trump initially said the project would cost $1.8 million. The total is now set to exceed $15 million.
The financial picture gets worse under closer inspection. AP News reported that two no-bid contracts drove the project: the $14.7 million deal with Atlantic Industrial Coatings for repainting and a separate $1.7 million contract with Green Water Solutions for water purification. Green Water Solutions is owned by John Cafaro, a Trump donor who lives near Mar-a-Lago. Congressional Democrats seized on the arrangement, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal calling the contracts "rushed" and "given to unqualified vendors with previous relationships to the president."
Blumenthal said the result was a reflecting pool "more covered with algae than before, with freshly painted chunks of paint peeling from the bottom to float on the pool's surface." Rep. Robert Garcia called the renovation Trump's "latest failed vanity project."
Those are political charges from the opposition, and they should be weighed accordingly. But the physical facts on the ground have done the critics' work for them. The pool reopened to algae blooms, peeling paint, and continued leaking, problems the renovation was supposed to fix.
A New York Times report dated September 11 laid out the core failure. Atlantic Industrial Coatings acknowledged that two incompatible chemicals were used during the original renovation, leading to the paint problems that plagued the pool all summer. The company cited human error, poor design, and what it called an ill-prepared renovation plan.
The DOI defended the project in a statement, comparing it to any large-scale construction effort. "Like any major construction project, and in this case, the world's largest reflecting pool which was worked on in record time for the 250th celebrations, there are always parts of a project where a contractor returns to make sure the work is perfect," the department said.
That framing, "make sure the work is perfect", is generous. The contractors did not return to polish a finished product. They returned because the original work failed. Incompatible chemicals, peeling paint, and toxic algae are not finishing touches. They are the kind of errors that raise basic questions about oversight and contract management.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers offered a broader defense: "President Trump promised to make DC safe and beautiful, and he's delivering." The administration had earlier blamed the pool's condition on the Biden administration's neglect. Trump announced via Truth Social that he and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum were working to fix what he called the "absolutely filthy" reflecting pool, claiming the previous administration had failed to address it.
Before the contractor errors came to light, the administration pursued a different explanation. Multiple individuals were charged with felony vandalism in connection with damage to the pool. Among them was Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted by a grand jury over the alleged damage.
The case fell apart. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro admitted the damage to the pool was from poor renovation work, not vandalism, and the charges against Hearn were dropped.
That reversal created its own political friction. Trump publicly pressed Pirro over the dropped charges, and a D.C. judge later signaled he would block prosecutors from re-charging Hearn. The episode left the administration in the position of having pursued felony charges against a citizen for damage its own contractors caused.
Trump eventually acknowledged contractor error while maintaining that vandalism still occurred. But the dropped charges and the contractor admissions undercut the original narrative.
Defenders of the current project point out that the Reflecting Pool has a long history of expensive, unsuccessful repairs. Interior Secretary Burgum noted that the Obama administration spent $38 million and closed the pool for two years without permanently solving the algae and leaking problems. Before Trump's renovation began, the pool was losing roughly 45,000 gallons of water per day.
The restoration included draining the pool, sandblasting the surface, repairing pipes and bubblers, and repainting the bottom. A $1.7 million ozone nanobubbler filtration system was installed to eliminate algae by dispersing tiny oxygen bubbles into the water. The National Park Service called the algae that appeared after reopening part of "the normal startup process" and said the nanobubblers would keep the pool clean going forward, the New York Post reported.
Whether the current round of repairs finally resolves the pool's chronic problems remains an open question. Work is due to wrap up October 15. The DOI has not disclosed whether additional contracts or charges are forthcoming.
The gap between the original $1.8 million estimate and the current $15-million-and-climbing total is the kind of number that should bother anyone who cares about how the federal government spends money. No-bid contracts, a donor-connected vendor, incompatible chemicals, felony charges that collapsed under their own weight, and a pool that still needed workers on site months after its showcase deadline, none of this inspires confidence in the process.
The Obama administration's $38 million failure does not excuse a repeat. If anything, it raises the bar. Taxpayers were told this time would be different. So far, the Reflecting Pool reflects mostly the federal government's inability to manage a construction project without the costs spiraling and the explanations shifting.
When the bill multiplies eightfold and the contractors admit they mixed the wrong chemicals, "he's delivering" is not an answer. Accountability is.
