Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool almost done draining

Reflecting pool almost done draining

FOX 5 spoke with a few tourists Thursday who said they were sad to see the reflecting pool not filled, but understood the need to clean it.

WASHINGTON - It’s a task the National Park Service takes on every year: Cleaning the reflecting pool.

Mike Litterst, spokesman for the National Mall, says it’s usually done earlier in the year, but due to some labor and supply chain issues, they got a late start on the work.

That later start when more people are out, coupled with a new social media manager for the Park Service, has meant a bit more attention to the annual cleaning.

"It always gets attention, any time you drain the reflecting pool," Litterst said. To be perfectly honest, this is the first time we’ve done it since we’ve had a full-time social media coordinator working for us, so, you know, you are seeing more video. You are seeing more pictures, simply because our bandwidth to bring this to people is increased."

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FOX 5 spoke with a few tourists Thursday who said they were sad to see the pool not filled but understood the need to clean it.

"It was one of the major things I remembered, you know? Walking around the capitol building and seeing the reflection of all that water, and people who sit out with their feet in," JoAnn Robertson said.

The Park Service has a very specific way they clean the pool.

There are ten drains running long ways up the pool. Those drains pump the water out. As water drains to the middle, the Park Service pressure washes and then scrubs towards the center until everything is gone.

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Then, a vacuum truck will come and clean those ten drains. The process of refilling the 4 million gallons of water will take a few days.

As for what causes the need for cleaning: The National Park Service says it’s goose and duck poop.

"The reflecting pool is this enormous, four million gallon water oasis in the middle of the city. It draws geese and ducks," Litterst said. "We know that a single goose can produce 1 to 2 pounds of poop a day. Multiply that by all the geese, all the ducks for a full year, and that’s, unfortunately, most of what the staff’s dealing with."