WASHINGTON — The contractor that first applied the “American flag blue” sealant to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool will also handle the upcoming repairs, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said.
Trump administration officials plan to partially drain the 6.75 million-gallon pool in the coming days to fix sections of the liner after pieces of sealant began peeling away.
“We will use the same company because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Even with this damage of the gash that we’re talking about, you’re talking about, again, this is — the size of eight football fields. It is eight acres, and we’re talking about like .001%.”
“The job that was done to fix the Reflecting Pool was done extremely well.”
The Trump administration drained the Reflecting Pool in April and spent an estimated $16 million to add a bottom liner, seal leaking joints and install an ozone nanobubbler system designed to help control algae.
Not long after the pool reopened, however, an algae bloom emerged. In response, crews added gallons of hydrogen peroxide — a chemical also used in paint removers — as part of the effort to bring the growth under control.
Soon after, visitors and other observers began spotting flakes of blue sealant lifting from the surface of the Reflecting Pool.
Given President Trump’s fixation on fixing up the Reflecting Pool, which has long been plagued by leaks and algae under previous administrations, the debacle turned into a local spectacle.
Trump and top Justice Department officials have alleged that vandals are responsible for the sealant coming off, with US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announcing charges last week against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, accusing him of damaging the liner.
Hearn faces up to 10 years behind bars, and his attorney has vowed to fight the charge.
The Department of the Interior had tapped the Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings to apply the sealant to the 2,030-by-167-foot pool.
While the renovations were underway, Trump took the presidential motorcade across the Reflecting Pool itself, something that some of the president’s detractors speculated may have led to the sealant peeling.
“No. I was with him when we came that night. He didn’t take the Beast,” Burgum said, referring to the heavily armored presidential limo.
“We were driving in a Cadillac Escalade. It is one of the presidential fleet of cars, but substantially lighter than what you’re talking about.
“At the time that we were there … the whole base level of this industrial rubber layer was not yet completed, and so there was no damage that night whatsoever.”
