WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that the company responsible for originally applying the “American flag blue” sealant to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool will also handle its repairs.
Officials from the Trump administration have initiated plans to partially drain the 6.75 million-gallon Reflecting Pool to fix its compromised liner. The decision comes after sealant fragments began detaching from the pool.
“We’re going with the same company for the repairs because their initial work was remarkable,” Burgum stated during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Burgum addressed the issue by saying, “Even with the damage—which is quite minimal compared to the overall structure—we’re looking at a surface equivalent to eight football fields. It covers eight acres, and the damage is around just 0.001%.”
“The repair job on the Reflecting Pool was executed exceptionally well,” he emphasized.
Tthe Trump administration drained the Reflecting Pool in April and spent an estimated $16 million to put a liner on the bottom, repair leaky joints, and install an ozone nanobubbler system intended to combat algae.
Shortly after the Reflecting Pool reopened, it was plagued by an algae bloom. Crews poured in gallons of hydrogen peroxide, a compound used in paint removers, as one of the steps taken to rein in the algae.
Then observers began noticing shards of blue sealant peeling off 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.”