2026-06-25T17:06:41.033Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/25/politics/reflecting-pool-repairs
美国国家公园管理局运营副主任在周三提交的一份法院文件中表示，该局将在独立日庆祝活动结束后抽干并修复林肯纪念堂倒影池。
“国家公园管理局计划在独立日庆祝活动结束后开始抽干倒影池，开展修复工作，包括评估并修复池壁衬里的任何损坏，”国家公园管理局运营副主任弗兰克·兰兹在文件中说道。
这份文件为水池修复工作的启动时间提供了明确时间表。此前，唐纳德·特朗普总统周二在Truth Social平台上称，水池将“在独立日假期之前或之后立即抽干”。
兰兹在文件中还进一步佐证了特朗普政府关于水池遭破坏的指控，称约有“70根围栏柱顶被扔进池中”，且泡沫密封剂上的填缝料“被利器或剃须刀割开”。
这位副主任的声明是针对该水池的持续法律诉讼的一部分。近期数周来，该水池一直问题缠身，从破坏指控到藻类爆发，再到蓝色涂层剥落。
一个非营利组织上月起诉特朗普政府，反对总统下令将水池涂成蓝色的行政令，辩称该项目违反联邦法律，要求内政部在开工前完成包括通知公众、征求其他联邦机构意见在内的咨询程序。
周一，该非营利组织的律师在另一份文件中表示，近期的事态发展进一步证明，有必要要求政府遵守相关程序步骤。
但政府方面的律师周三辩称，困扰水池的问题“与原告所质疑的机构决策的合法性毫无关系”。
今年早些时候，特朗普出于“美化”美国首都的目的，对该水池表现出个人兴趣。3月下旬，他在Truth Social平台上称，自己正与内政部长道格·伯格拉姆合作修复该水池。该水池曾在奥巴马政府时期于2012年完成过为期两年的翻新工程。
在随后的几周里，特朗普扩大了该项目的范围，并下令进行外观改造，包括将池底涂成类似美国国旗蓝色区域的色调。
此次翻新工程还被加快推进，以便在美国建国250周年纪念日前完成。
但就在本月初水池重新注水的一天后，问题就显现了出来：从池边就能看到大量藻类。
短短几天内，成堆的藻类覆盖了整个水池，促使政府派遣工作人员进行真空清理、安装被称为“臭氧纳米气泡发生器”的过滤系统，并向池中投放了加仑量级的过氧化氢。
上周，池底的蓝色涂层开始剥落。特朗普随后称已有多人因破坏水池被捕。
内政部发言人周四告诉美国有线电视新闻网（CNN），目前已有18起针对水池破坏行为的警方报案，另有7人被捕。
在周三的文件中，兰兹表示，6月9日，美国公园警察接到国家公园管理局的报案，称池内泡沫密封剂上的填缝料有一处被割开。
特朗普曾多次提及水池上的“一道大裂口”，并持续抨击所谓的破坏其亲自参与的项目的行为。他对此给出了不同的描述：先是称裂口长250英尺，随后又加大了尺寸，之后又改口称“实际上是沿350英尺长的区域有多处刀割痕迹”。
周三提交的文件并未提及所谓割痕的具体长度。
《纽约时报》本周早些时候报道称，政府内部文件显示，国家公园管理局工作人员“在水池伸缩缝之间的泡沫材料上发现两处割痕，每处长171英尺”。但该报同时指出，文件并未就这些割痕是如何形成的给出任何指控。
本周早些时候，CNN采访了多名游客，其中大多数人对此次翻新工程并不满意。
60岁的马洛里·博伊德是土生土长的华盛顿特区居民，她记得小时候曾沿着水池骑车玩耍。她称此次翻新工程是在浪费纳税人的钱。
“我认为，我们纳税人在这项出了岔子且本无必要的修复工程上花费如此多资金，简直是一场闹剧，”她周二对CNN说道。
与此同时，从堪萨斯州到访华盛顿特区的塔德·瓦格纳则对水池现状表示满意。
“我看过几篇报道称他们为翻新工程投入了大量资金，我觉得效果不错，”瓦格纳说道，他还补充称，关于水池遭到破坏的说法“着实令人失望”。
从纽约州北部专程前来参观水池的雅克琳·麦克唐纳周二对CNN表示，围绕该水池的争论正在成为历史。
她称水池“相当恶心”，并补充道：“我告诉孩子们，总有一天我们会在历史书中读到这件事，会读到这座倒影池遭遇了什么，以及这是多么的国之耻辱，我希望能亲口说我当时就在现场。”
CNN记者迈克尔·威廉姆斯、凯特琳·波兰茨、德文·科尔和丹尼尔·戴尔对本文亦有报道。
Park Service will drain, repair Reflecting Pool after July Fourth, court filing says
2026-06-25T17:06:41.033Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/25/politics/reflecting-pool-repairs
The National Park Service will drain and repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after July Fourth celebrations, the agency’s deputy director for operations said in a court filing Wednesday.
“The National Park Service plans to begin draining the reflecting pool following the Independence Day celebration to conduct repairs, including assessing and repairing any damage to the lining,” NPS Deputy Director for Operations Frank Lands said in the filing.
The filing provides a firm timeline for when pool repairs will begin as President Donald Trump said on Truth Social Tuesday that it would be drained “either immediately before or after the Fourth of July.”
Lands, in the filing, also furthered the Trump administration’s allegations of vandalism, saying in the filing that about “70 fence post tops were thrown into the pool,” and a caulk over the foam sealant “was cut with a sharp knife or razor.”
The deputy director’s declaration was filed as part of an ongoing legal battle over the pool, which has been riddled with issues in recent weeks from claims of vandalism to algae bloom and peeling blue material.
A nonprofit sued the Trump administration last month over the president’s order to paint the pool blue, arguing that the project violates federal laws requiring the Interior Department to complete a consultation process that includes notifying the public and getting input from other federal agencies before beginning the work.
On Monday, lawyers for the nonprofit said in their own filing that recent developments reinforce the need to require the administration to follow certain procedural steps.
But lawyers for the administration argued Wednesday that the problems plaguing the pool “have nothing at all to do with the legality of the agency decision that Plaintiffs challenge.”
Trump took a personal interest in the pool earlier this year as part of his efforts to “beautify” the nation’s capital. In late March, he said on Truth Social that he was working to fix the pool along with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The pool had previously gone through a two-year renovation in 2012 during the Obama administration.
In the weeks that followed, Trump expanded the scope of the project and ordered cosmetic changes, including painting the bottom of the pool a shade of blue that resembles the American flag’s blue field.
The renovation was also expedited so it would be completed before the country’s 250th anniversary.
But signs that the project did not go according to plan emerged just a day after the reservoir was filled earlier this month with quite a bit of algae visible from the water’s edge.
Within days, clumps of algae took over the pool, prompting the administration to send in workers to vacuum it out, install a filtration system known as the “ozone nanobubbler” and dump gallons of hydrogen peroxide in the pool.
Last week, blue material at the bottom of pool began peeling off. The president then said several people were arrested for vandalizing the pool.
An Interior Department spokesperson told CNN Thursday there have been 18 police reports filed for vandalism of the pool, adding that seven people were arrested.
In Wednesday’s filing, Lands said on June 9, US Park Police responded to an NPS report of a cut in a caulk over the pool’s foam sealant.
Trump has repeatedly mentioned a “gash” in the pool as he continues to rail against alleged vandalism of a project he was personally invested in. He has offered varying descriptions — first calling it a 250-foot cut and then increasing that measurement. He later said there were “actually numerous slashes over a very long 350 foot length.”
Wednesday’s filing did not provide any details about the length of the supposed cut.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that internal government documents showed that NPS workers “found two cuts in sections of foam between the pool’s expansion joints,” each 171 feet long. However, the Times said, the documents did not make any allegations about how these reported cuts ended up in the pool.
Earlier this week, CNN spoke with several visitors, a majority of whom were not pleased with the renovation.
Mallory Boyd, 60, a lifelong DC resident who remembers riding her bike along the pool as a child, called the renovation a “waste” of taxpayer dollars.
“I think that it is a travesty that we are spending as taxpayers this much money on a restoration that was afoul and for something that was not necessary,” she told CNN on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Tad Wagner, who is visiting Washington, DC, from Kansas, was satisfied with the pool.
“I’ve read a couple of reports that they spent a lot of money to redo it. I think it looks good,” Wagner said, adding that claims that the pool has been vandalized were “really disappointing.”
Jaclyn MacDonald, who traveled from upstate New York to see the pool, stressed to CNN on Tuesday that the debate surrounding the pool is history in the making.
Describing the pool as “pretty gross,” she added: “I told my kids that, you know, one day we’re going to read about this in history books, we’re going to read about what happened to this Reflecting Pool and the national disgrace that it is, and I want to be able to say that I was there.”
CNN’s Michael Williams, Katelyn Polantz, Devan Cole and Daniel Dale contributed to this report.
