Trump Administration Awards $2.7M to Fix Pool Algae
Trump Administration Awards $2.7M to Fix Pool Algae
The News
The Trump administration has hired another contractor to clean the algae out of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, adding roughly $2.7 million to a renovation that has already gone badly and expensively wrong.
The National Park Service awarded the contract last week to American Ag Energy Inc., a Massachusetts company that specializes in renewable energy technology, for the maintenance, repair and rebuilding of water purification and sewage treatment equipment at the pool, according to federal spending records cited by CNN and The Independent.
The one-year deal can be extended for five more years and grow to as much as $8.8 million, CNN reported.
The Numbers
Outlets differ on the running total. CNN reported that with the newest contract, costs have surpassed $14 million. Newsmax put the tab past $14 million as well. The Independent, tallying the contracts awarded so far, put the total at at least $19.1 million — "nearly $20 million."
President Trump initially pitched the job as a quick $1.5 million fix in time for Fourth of July celebrations, according to The Independent. CNN reported he first estimated around $2 to $3 million, then revised the projection to "less than $20 million."
Timeline
Trump orders the Reflecting Pool refurbished as part of his executive order to make the capital "safe and beautiful," and as a showcase for the country's 250th birthday. The Independent reports the initial no-bid contract went to Atlantic Industrial Coatings LLC, a Virginia-based firm that did not appear to have previously held a federal contract; costs quickly rose to nearly $7 million.
Trump rides in his motorcade across the drained pool to survey the site. The long-gray pool bottom is outfitted with a liner in a shade the administration called "American flag blue." Atlantic Industrial Coatings is awarded another $6.2 million.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings receives another $1 million, followed by more than $461,000 on June 15, according to The Independent.
After the pool is refilled, algae turns the water green. The administration brings in Greenwater Services, an Ohio company, which uses ozone nanobubbler technology under a contract CNN reported at $1.7 million. The algae persists. The blue material on the pool bottom begins peeling and floating to the surface; Trump blames vandals.
Olympic canoeist David Hearn, 67, is indicted on a felony destruction of property charge carrying up to 10 years, after prosecutors accused him of ripping out the blue liner. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says the administration will not seek new contracts, with costs then above $17 million, The Independent reported.
DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office moves to dismiss the case against Hearn, acknowledging in a court filing that the renovation was "hasty and botched" and that the blue sealant began peeling "almost immediately." Charges against other defendants are dropped days later.
Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, is awarded $1.8 million to install a water-purification system, The Independent reported. Late in the month, the Park Service awards American Ag Energy roughly $2.7 million.
The new contract is reported publicly. CNN reports that American Ag Energy CEO Richard Rosen was convicted last year of voter fraud for casting ballots twice in the 2016 election — once in Massachusetts, once in New Hampshire — a conviction the New Hampshire Supreme Court overturned earlier this year over what it ruled were incorrect evidentiary rulings at trial. Rosen told CNN he is in mediation with the New Hampshire attorney general's office; the charges can be refiled.
Reactions
Rosen told CNN he learned of the algae problem from one of his directors and then from a news report. "I realized that I actually knew how to solve this problem," he said. Of the Park Service: "They want me to solve it the right way, okay, and they're doing a very good job, trying to do the right thing and I will be very helpful to them."
He told NBC News, in comments cited by The Independent: "I read about it in The New York Times, and I said, you know what, I can fix this problem."
Trump attacked Pirro after his own prosecutor dropped the vandalism case. "I don't know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM," he wrote on Truth Social. He has since acknowledged that "some contractor error" played a role in the damage.
Hearn's lawyers wrote on Aug. 4 that "from day one, the case against Mr. Hearn was motivated by political considerations and devoid of adequate factual support," and that the government "proceeded to indict Mr. Hearn before it had obtained or evaluated the information necessary to establish a good-faith basis for the charge."
Pirro's office, opposing dismissal with prejudice, argued that "the mere potential that charges may be re-brought does not constitute the type of harassment for which dismissal with prejudice is appropriate."
The Interior Department did not follow up with CNN on questions about the new contract or how it fits with work already done.
What's Next
Rosen told CNN he and members of his team are surveying the pool now, ahead of treatment.
A judge still has to rule on whether the Hearn indictment is dismissed with prejudice, as his lawyers want, or without it, as Pirro's office is asking — the difference between the case being closed and the felony charge coming back.
American Ag Energy's one-year contract can run five additional years and reach $8.8 million if the government exercises the options.
Rosen's own voter-fraud case remains open in New Hampshire, where prosecutors can refile after the state supreme court sent it back to Grafton County Superior Court.
More
The administration bypassed competitive bidding on the pool contracts by arguing that delay would cause "serious injury" to the government, The Independent reported, though what that injury would be has not been spelled out.
Greenwater's co-owner, J.J. Cafaro, is a longtime Trump supporter and donor who pleaded guilty in 2001 to conspiracy to bribe Rep. James Traficant Jr., an Ohio Democrat, CNN reported. Company executives said Cafaro is not involved in day-to-day operations.
The 2,030-foot pool has greeted tourists on the National Mall since the early 1920s. It has now been drained, relined, refilled and treated multiple times in a single year.
Poll
Who should pay for the Reflecting Pool overruns?
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