Blue material peeling off bottom of Reflecting Pool, days after costly renovation

By Abigail Roedersheimer, Michael Williams, Kit Maher, CNN

(CNN) — Some blue material at the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is peeling off, days after the pool was painted blue and refilled as part of a multi-million dollar renovation ordered by President Donald Trump.

On Thursday at the National Mall, CNN observed a flap of blue material that was partially attached to the bottom in one area of the pool and floating toward the top. It is unclear if the material is paint or sealant, and it’s unclear what caused it to come up.

The Department of the Interior did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shown pictures and videos of the material, Eddie Wood, who owns Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based firm hired to renovate the pool, said the images do not provide enough information “to tell exactly what that is.”

“There’s several things that we’ve got to address when we come back for maintenance, and anything like that will be addressed, if it’s a problem,” Wood said.

Tim Auerhahn, a pool infrastructure expert and the chairman of the Aquatic Council, said it’s difficult to tell from the videos what was causing the “apparent delamination.”

“A coating system can fail for several reasons, including substrate preparation, surface contamination, application conditions, adhesion issues, product selection, mechanical damage, environmental exposure, or a combination of factors,” Auerhahn said.

The larger question, he added, is whether this represents a localized issue in that part of the pool or a larger, more systemic issue with the coating.

“If the coating is losing adhesion in multiple locations, that could indicate a more significant concern,” he said.

The issue is the latest to plague the iconic body of water since Trump ordered the pool, which has served as the centerpiece of the National Mall for decades, to be renovated in April.

Issues with algae and leaks have bedeviled various presidential administrations nearly since the pool was first opened a century ago.

In 2012, President Barack Obama’s administration spent $34 million on an 18-month renovation of the pool which was meant to address ongoing issues with algae blooms.

However, shortly after that renovation was completed, the pool again became a murky, smelly mess, filled with algae, bird waste and dead ducks.

That apparent failure to adequately address the issues with the pool became political fodder for Trump when he ordered his own renovation, seeking to repaint the bottom of the pool a color which he referred to as “American flag blue.”

The renovations were initially estimated to cost $1.8 million. It appears the cost of the project is now up to $14.7 million, according to a contract summary of the Interior Department’s award to Atlantic Industrial Coatings.

But it didn’t take long for many of the same issues to resurface. Not long after the newly renovated pool was filled with water earlier this month, algae again discolored the water.

Earlier this week, in an apparent effort to remediate that discoloration, workers were seen pouring jugs of hydrogen peroxide into the pool and deployed what an Interior spokesperson described as “advanced nanobubbler technology.” As of Thursday afternoon, the pool was still green in large sections, with algae visible.

The pool renovation is one of several projects ordered by the president to “beautify” Washington, DC. Trump has also sought to build a ballroom at the East Wing of the White House; build a towering arch near Arlington National Cemetery; and has proposed constructing a “National Garden of American Heroes,” with 250 lifelike statues of several prominent Americans throughout the country’s history.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.