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PaperclipPerfector  10d ago (text post)   2718 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 21, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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Before I waste any more of my time thinking about this, is there any evidence that the degradation of the new reflecting pool coating was caused by vandalism as opposed to run-of-the-mill incompetence?

I don’t really care about the algae. That seems like a fixable problem.

I personally think it's incompetence. And even worse, it's incompetence due to corruption.

But in an effort to be charitable: somebody certainly made "giant ‘8647’ markings on National Mall" and that's vandalism, so can't rule out the same for the pool as well.

Here's CNN reporting that the water in the pool has elevated phosphate. My understanding is that one of the more straightforward ways you'd get elevated phosphate in the water is by dumping phosphate fertilizer into the water. Given the other evidence of deliberate vandalism, I'm not sure why incompetence or corruption are supposed to be the leading hypothesis here.

I'm open to being corrected if there's some other explanation.

Why do we need a conspiracy here? Hasn't there been algae in this pool all the time?

“The nanobubbler technology has successfully destroyed the algae bloom that has plagued every pool reopening since 1922—most infamously the Obama-era pool reopening, which resulted in massive algae clumps taking over the pool’s surface following years of construction that cost taxpayers millions upon millions, only for the pool to become broken and disgusting days later,” a spokesperson said.

Also, I assume the national mall is covered in security cameras. Surely they would have caught someone dumping bags of fertilizer in there if that was what happened?

Why do we need a conspiracy here? Hasn't there been algae in this pool all the time?

Because it's not just the algae, it's the water having elevated phosphate levels feeding the algae, per CNN, at the same time that people are definitely intentionally vandalizing the nearby green, and also definitely intentionally damaging the new liner material. Again, I'm open to other explanations, but those explanations really ought to account for the observable evidence.

The phosphate levels are elevated compared to what? To ordinary water, or to this pool that's had algae issues for apparently a hundred years?

those explanations really ought to account for the observable evidence.

You don't have to posit a novel explanation when the phenomenon in question is not novel.

....I think one of us is misunderstanding something here.

My understanding is that algae eat phosphate to grow, and therefore an algae bloom should reduce phosphate levels, not elevate them. Algae do not need elevated phosphate to bloom, but will bloom a lot more in the presence of elevated phosphate. further, my understanding is that the most common source of elevated phosphate in water is from fertilizer runoff.

Again, this seems like a pretty straightforward question of fact to me. CNN is reporting elevated phosphate levels in the pool; it seems a reasonable inference that these levels are elevated versus the water that's being pumped into the pool, but if I'm wrong about that, I welcome correction. If the water in the pool has more phosphate than the water being added to the pool, then phosphate is being added to the pool somehow. Given that there is an ongoing vandalism campaign being conducted with relation to the pool and its surroundings, it seems logical to me that the phosphate is being added by the vandals.

Unfortunately, there's a plausible alternative explanation: dead leaf and grass matter will produce phosphate as a byproduct of decomposition, and it's fairly common for pool installations to have early-spring startup phosphate problems downstream of either water or piping contaminated by that decayed matter. It's a well-enough known problem that the implementing company during the repairs would do some purges as a matter of course, but depending on the size of the pump and filtration system, that may have been hard to actually do. And taking in water with moderate phosphate amounts is common: the Obama-era reworks took in Potamac water that was pretty gross about it.

On the flip side, the amount of phosphate fertilizer necessary to produce an algae bloom in a 7m gallon tank is about the size of a milk jug if dumped directly in, and maybe the size of a backpack if just dropped in the grass near the pool, so the malicious explanation is pretty plausible, too.

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