It's Too Easy Seeing Green: $34M Reflecting Pool Edged By Algae | News

WASHINGTON, D.C.  (WUSA) -  A sheen of unsightly pale green algae has crept into the National Mall's Reflecting Pool which reopened last month after a $34 million renovation, but the National Park Service said it is in the process of "balancing and commissioning the new Reflecting Pool water circulation, filtration, and treatment systems."

 The pool's new water
circulating system gets water pumped from the Tidal Basin, which is
filtered, and treated before it flows into the renovated Reflecting Pool. The NPS says the new
system is continually circulating and treating water using ozonation, a
natural water treatment process that needs no chemicals.

NPS says the algae is "a natural consequence of taking water from Tidal Basin. The ozonation
is being adjusted, and the algae is beginning to die off." NPS has crews
skimming the pool manually to help the filtering process along and says the "adjustment phase was expected."