Did Vandals Target the Reflecting Pool?

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As I pointed out here, the left is having a field day with the algae in the Reflecting Pool. It's amazing how happy they are about it. The Washington Post published another story about it and the new angle is that the blue paint/sealant is peeling. 

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On Thursday, a sheet of the pool’s surface — painted in “American Flag Blue,” a color selected by the president — was seen floating in the water on the north side of the pool. It undulated in the water as curious tourists gathered, some of whom had come to see the green algae.

At 5:35 p.m. on Thursday, a worker came to remove the sheet of pool surface, telling a Washington Post photographer not to photograph it, despite being on public land.

The Interior Department did not immediately respond to questions about the paint and why the pool surface is separating. The agency said in a statement on Wednesday that it is treating the pool with hydrogen peroxide and “high-tech nanobubble ozone technology” to effectively cut off the algae’s food supply.

Democrats are so excited:

Clearly a memo has gone out and they are all taking turns dunking on this. Plus, team algae is out there celebrating the anti-fascist algae.

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Why is the material peeling? That's not entirely clear yet, but Trump claimed vandals were responsible.

“Things are really looking good in our Nation’s Capital, and add to that the fact that when I became President, Crime was rampant, and now, Washington, D.C., is one of the Safest Cities anywhere in the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“However, we’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial,” he continued.

“Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed.”

“No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work,” he said.

Trump is referring to the grass destroyed right next to the reflecting pool. That was clearly vandalism and is still visible. Again, the left loves this destruction because it's aimed at Trump.

Someone clearly dumped a bunch of chemicals on the lawn so it's possible they might have done the same to the pool. Coincidentally, there is video showing someone wrote 8647 in the bottom of the pool a couple days ago. 

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Is it a fluke? Well, it seems two people have been arrested for peeling up part of the sealant. Emily Miller has been at the pool every day covering this.

This guy has denied any vandalism.

David Hearn had just finished a loop around Hains Point on Friday as part of a 52-mile bike ride when he swung by the Lincoln Memorial to see the refurbished Reflecting Pool for himself.

Noticing a piece of the new “American flag blue” liner that was partially detached from the pool bottom, Hearn said he reached into the water to see what it felt like. Moments later, as the Bethesda man prepared to leave, U.S. Park Police officers arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property. He is scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court on July 9.

Here's another guy who reached in to tear off a piece.

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This is a thing that people are doing now. It's an anti-Trump trophy.

Another guy was arrested today.

Lots of people are going into the pool.

So is there any pool vandalism here? We know why the algae bloom set a record, thanks to a CNN water test.

Some of the language is a little confusing but phosphates are essentially the fertilizer you would use in a garden. If you throw a lot of phosphates into a pool, you get algae blooms. What the expert being interviewed is saying is that you can't have phosphate levels that high if you want to keep algae at bay. 

So where did those high levels of phosphate come from? According to Emily Miller the pool was refilled with city water, not water from the Potomac. If that's true then there shouldn't have been high concentrations of phosphates in the pool.

Anyway, I tossed this question to Google Gemini just to see what it would say: "How many 50 pound bags of phosphate fertilizer would be required to create an algae bloom in a 6 million gallon pool with zero chlorine in it?"

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Google informed me that some really high phosphate bags of fertilizer are available: I looked and you purchase the stuff online at WalMart and lots of other places. So how much would you need to kick off an algal bloom in a 6 million gallon pool? (It's a 6.5 million gallon pool). I was imagining a full pallet full of 50 pound bags which you couldn't possibly sneak into the pool without being noticed and arrested. But according to Gemini, half of one 50lb bag would be enough.

Approximately half of a 50 lb bag (0.5 bags) of [a particular fertilizer] is mathematically required to raise the phosphorus concentration to a bloom-susceptible threshold of 100 parts per billion (ppb) in a chlorine-free, 6-million-gallon body of water.

I don't think this proves it was vandalism but if the math is accurate then I think it proves it could be vandalism. After all, someone was out there on the lawn killing the grass in this very specific pattern. Someone put a lot of thought into this and carried a bunch of grass killer secretly on their person to make this happen.

Someone, maybe even the same person who vandalized the lawn, could have slipped 25 pounds of fertilizer into the Reflecting Pool overnight. You wouldn't need a trunk full of 50 pound bags of the stuff. You could fit it in one or at most two backpacks. I asked Gemini again and the second time it suggested maybe as little as a quarter of a bag would be enough to prime the entire pool for a bloom. Of course you also need sun and warm temperatures which we have right now in DC.

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Then again, given how little phosphate it takes, maybe there was some phosphate and algae in the pipes as some have suggested. Maybe that was all it took, no vandalism required. 

So, for the record, I'm not saying this was vandalism. There's no proof of that at the moment. I'm just saying there has been some undeniable vandalism nearby and it is possible someone, just one person who did a few Google searches about algae, could have done this.

Anyway, I'd love it if the people responsible for the lawn vandalism were caught and we could ask them about the pool, but so far as I'm aware no one has been arrested yet.

Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

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