Just days after a multi-million-dollar refurbishment designed to turn the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington blue, the water has turned green again as algae has taken over.
US President Donald Trump had personally pushed the work to renovate the pond at a cost of around $14.2 million. He had repeatedly complained that the pool was dirty and had been unsightly for years.
As part of the refurbishment, the bottom was given a dark blue coating that Trump described as "American flag blue." The work was intended to be completed in time for celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States on July 4.
The Interior Department said, according to US media reports, that the algae had already died and were currently being vacuumed up. The cause was residue in pipes that had been standing idle during the construction work, it said.
Algae has been a recurring problem for decades. The body of water is relatively shallow, lies in direct sunlight and heats up in the high summer temperatures in the nation's capital.
Algae reappeared within a few weeks after an earlier overhaul. A new water treatment system is intended to keep the pool algae-free in future.
Renovation politically contested
The latest refurbishment has prompted political debate. US media reported that the government had awarded contracts to selected companies without a tender process. The Trump administration justified this by citing time pressure ahead of the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States.
The pool is one of the US capital's best-known landmarks. The roughly 600-metre-long pool lies between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. It served as the backdrop for civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.
