One of Washington, D.C.’s most iconic landmarks is the new testing ground for an experimental water treatment technology that has never before been deployed on a pool of its scale — a $1.7 million ozone nanobubbler system installed at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as part of a broader renovation effort tied to America’s 250th birthday celebration.
The system, operated by Greenwater Services, a company based in Brookfield, Ohio, began full permanent operation on June 25 after a turbulent six-week installation process that included a federal removal order, an algae outbreak, and the temporary reinsertion of mobile equipment. The Trump administration has described the technology as “state of the art,” though experts remain cautious about whether it can keep pace with a body of water holding 6.5 million gallons.
How the Nanobubbler Works
The ozone nanobubbler operates by injecting an enormous concentration of microscopic bubbles — roughly 500 million per teaspoon of water — into the pool’s supply line. The system draws from the municipal water supply, runs it through a filtration process, uses an oxygen concentrator to produce ozone, and then injects that ozone-enriched water directly into the master pipe feeding the Reflecting Pool. The permanent unit is housed in a pump house at the U.S. Park Police stables, keeping the equipment out of the pool itself rather than floating visibly on the surface.
The goal is to oxidize algae, bacteria, and other chemical contaminants that have long plagued the pool. The Reflecting Pool has struggled with cleanliness for decades, and the current renovation effort is also contending with a peeling pool bottom and allegations of vandalism that complicated the timeline further.
Chas Antinone, president and chief operating officer of Greenwater Services, described the mission in straightforward terms: “Our job was to come here and bring a technology that we think can keep the Reflecting Pool looking clean and reflect the way it is supposed to.”
The nanobubbler technology itself is only about five years old and has not previously been formally studied or deployed on a pool of this size or configuration, making the Reflecting Pool effectively its largest real-world trial.
A Rocky Road to Permanent Installation
The path to the June 25 activation was anything but smooth. Four temporary mobile machines were placed in the pool on June 6, but the National Park Service ordered their removal less than a week later, on June 12, without publicly explaining the reason. Shortly after removal, an algae bloom developed in the pool — a development that drew scrutiny given the timing. The temporary units were reinstalled the following day.
The gap in treatment coincided with a Ultimate Fighting Championship photo opportunity held on the National Mall, drawing additional attention to the pool’s condition during the equipment disruption. The permanent unit arrived on June 16, installation work began, and by June 25 the temporary machines were pulled for good as the permanent system took over.
Greenwater Services has retained a crisis communications firm amid the scrutiny surrounding the project. A review of campaign finance records found no political contributions by Antinone, though the pool’s owner made donations to President Trump’s campaign.
The Department of Interior has not announced any timeline for repairing the pool’s decades-old pipe infrastructure, which remains a separate and unresolved concern.
Experts Urge Caution
Industry observers are not ready to call the project a success. Joe Trusty, editor of Pool Magazine, acknowledged the technology’s potential while noting the unknowns involved. “Whether or not it is going to be able to be effective in as large a body of water and as shallow a body of water such as the Reflecting Pool remains to be seen,” he said.
The shallow depth and sheer volume of the Reflecting Pool present conditions that no nanobubbler system has previously been engineered to address at this scale.
What Comes Next
With the permanent system now active, the coming weeks will serve as the real measure of whether the technology can maintain water quality at the Reflecting Pool through the summer heat — historically among the worst conditions for algae growth. The Department of Interior has offered no public schedule for addressing the pool’s underlying pipe issues, leaving long-term infrastructure questions unresolved even as the new treatment system runs. No independent scientific review of the nanobubbler’s performance has been announced. Idaho residents tracking federal infrastructure spending can follow related reporting at Idaho News, while local infrastructure and water management updates for Bonneville County — including this summer’s water conservation effort in Idaho Falls — remain active stories worth watching.