Reflecting Pool contract balloons up to $14.7M

Energy & Environment Reflecting Pool contract balloons up to $14.7M Comments: by Rachel Frazin - 06/18/26 3:44 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Rachel Frazin - 06/18/26 3:44 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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The cost of a contract for work on the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool has ballooned further — now costing taxpayers a total of $14.7 million — according to federal records.

The federal contract with Atlantic Industrial Coatings is up more than $1.5 million from $13.1 million a month ago, a federal database showed as of Thursday.

The contract was for work completed through June 3. On June 3, federal records show a transaction bringing the total cost up to $14.2 million.

However, records also indicate that there was an additional transaction of about $460,000 on June 15. It’s not immediately clear what the expense was for.

The White House referred comments to the Interior Department, which did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The total comes as algae in the reflecting pool is making headlines. The Trump administration has said that it is using hydrogen peroxide to combat the algal bloom.

“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool—just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” the Interior Department said in a statement on social media.

The specific Reflecting Pool contract has come under particular scrutiny after The New York Times reported that it came with an inflated profit margin.

More broadly, the administration is spending tens of millions of dollars on D.C. projects as President Trump seeks to improve the city ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday.