The long list of grievous failures related to the ill-fated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has grown longer after a Washington Post exposé based on an inspection report obtained by the paper.
The report, issued internally on August 6 after having been commissioned by the contractor in charge of repairs, documents far more problems than were previously known, and does not mention any vandalism of the kind that the Trump administration cited as a source of the troubles during the summer-long affair.
As reported by the Post, “The 75-page ‘failure analysis’ by Atlantic Coating Inspection includes scores of photos documenting the liner’s deficiencies—ranging in severity and including blisters, peeling and cracks—and identifies their likely causes. Some of the peeling probably occurred because workers were still applying the coating the day before the pool was refilled with water on June 4, even though the material needed 72 hours to ‘cure,’ or dry completely, according to the report.”
In a statement issued Tuesday, a U.S. Interior Department spokesperson said Atlantic Industrial Coatings (AIC), the company in charge of the repair work and that commissioned the August 6 report, “is contractually obligated to fix the Reflecting Pool” and is “well on its way to doing so.”
After AIC was awarded a no-bid $14.7-million contract to purportedly fix problems that had dogged the Reflecting Pool for decades, work commenced. As the Post recounted it, “By early June, the pool was refilled. Within days, a massive algal bloom turned the water green. Then flakes of peeled blue paint began to poke through the water’s surface.”