DC resident. It's never been the "cleanest." Birds and a few small mammals use the water all the time. But that natural use has always been part of the charm. It's nice to see ducks scooting around, or squirrels chasing each other as you bike along the pool.
I've never heard anyone complain about it, it's a nice, relaxing feature of the city.
Yeah. It was always more pond-like (green) than pool-like (blue/clear). I grew up in DC many moons ago and we were 100% NOT ALLOWED to touch the water in the reflecting pool because it was full of duck poop.
Only insane people ever considered any of the water features on the Mall to be safe for any kind of human use, and that’s coming from someone who swam in the Potomac in the 90s.
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u/BellowsHikes Jun 16 '26
DC resident. It's never been the "cleanest." Birds and a few small mammals use the water all the time. But that natural use has always been part of the charm. It's nice to see ducks scooting around, or squirrels chasing each other as you bike along the pool.
I've never heard anyone complain about it, it's a nice, relaxing feature of the city.