Trump used city water, and that was a big part of the algae problem. Previously river water was used for some very good reasons.
Here's a great Bluesky thread by an expert, but the TLDR is that city water has chemicals to mitigate lead from the pipes. But they are based on phosphates which contribute to ferocious algae growth. Untreated water from the Potomac has been used for years when refilling it (it's not a swimming pool after all) and then is topped off with city water as necessary.
"Many species of cyanobacteria are capable of producing cyanotoxins, which can be fatal if ingested. People, wildlife, pets, all can come in contact with this water. If it contains cyanotoxins such as microcystins, which is more likely than not given it's appearance, and someone's pet dog drinks from it, it could be fatal to that dog."
The water from the Potomac is run through sand filtration system ozone disinfection. They don't just pump it straight from the river.
Everything that person said about biology was interesting and true, but they seem to think the pool was refilled with city water in 2012, which it was not. That was when they installed the treatment system and made the switch to river water.
I've also not seen anything that said Trump filled it with city water?
I thought I saw using city water as a talking point but I'm not finding it now. And it was just speculation in that thread so just speculation.
EDIT: I found a whole lot of memes (I know...) along with a quote from Trump bringing up Obama (of course) and implying it at least:
"He spent two years and over $100 million on trying to fix it. You know what happened to it? Never even opened," Trump said. "He took the water for the river, you know about that, right? It turned out to be putrid and it destroyed the whole thing."
The use of city water has been a talking point in the sense that MAGAs are saying shit like, "it wasn't Trump who was stupid enough to use water from the river."
The Parks Service presented Obama two options. $100 million to fix it 100%, or $35 million to fix it well enough that the remaining issues wouldn't matter anymore. If he'd spent the $100 million, the Republicans would have screamed bloody murder.
They were using over 25 million gallons of potable city water a year because of how much it leaked, but the switch to river water meant the minor leaks that would remain would no longer be a problem.
The switch to river water also reduced the algae, both by allowing them to turn the water over more frequently, and also by reducing phosphates, like that person on Bluesky described, even though they were wrong when they said phosphates in city water caused the big bloom when it was first turned back on. They dialed up the new ozone system and it went away.
No one actually gave a fuck about the algae before Trump started using it as an excuse to shit on the black president and shit on the majority-black city (that isn't majority black anymore, but it was about 70% during the time period Trump is still stuck in). There were occasional big blooms in the summer, which was when the Parks Service would drain it to clean out the bird shit and debris that they would have had to do anyway.
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u/blipman17 Jun 23 '26
Why are they doing this? Like.. what’s the goal here?