Government Retains Company for Reflecting Pool Repairs Amid Controversy

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that the government will employ the same company that received a multimillion-dollar, no-bid contract to paint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to fix damage to its original work. In a Sunday interview on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ Burgum stated that the company responsible for painting the pool’s base ‘American flag blue’ did ‘extremely well,’ suggesting vandalism caused the paint to loosen.

‘We will use the same company because they did a fantastic job,’ Burgum declared. The administration has been scrutinized for awarding a $13.1 million, no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a company with a history of working on Trump properties. Originally, the project’s cost was estimated between $1.5 million and $2 million. Eddie Wood, owner of Atlantic Industrial Coatings, informed NBC News the cost started at $13.1 million and later rose to $14.6 million due to additional work required by the National Park Service.

Post-completion, chunks of blue paint have loosened and algae emerged, tinting the water bright green. The government then provided a $1.7 million contract to Green Water Solutions, a firm tied to a Trump donor, to address the algae problem.

Peeling paint and algae on the bottom of the Reflecting Pool last month. Aaron Schwartz / Reuters

Donald Trump claimed, without proof, that the paint detached due to vandals inflicting large cuts on the floor. Following Trump’s claim, several individuals were arrested and charged. U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted recently on charges of destroying property, accused of inflicting over $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn denied these allegations, saying he neither removed nor damaged the coating. He told NBC News he was briefly detained for five hours after examining a piece of loose coating while biking.

When asked about Hearn’s arrest, Burgum remarked that Hearn can express his perspective, but the courts will determine his culpability. ‘You can be a former governor, you can be a former this, you can be a former that, but just because you were a former something doesn’t exclude you from the law today,’ Burgum commented.