"Greenwater Services, owned by a Trump donor, has received two no-bid contracts from the government since the president returned to office."
"A year before Greenwater Services got a $1.7 million contract to clean the algae-infected Reflecting Pool, it had received another no-bid government contract to deploy at the trash-plagued Tijuana River.
Greenwater, which is owned by a Trump donor, was hired to treat sewage in the Tijuana River with its “nanobubble technology,” a system that injects ozone into water. But the month-long water purification pilot to evaluate the technology was cut short last October when a storm flooded the river’s banks. The remnants of machinery were washed into the border river, with diesel leaking along the way, frustrating scientists and environmentalists at federal agencies who had questioned internally whether the company’s project would work in a flood-prone area.
Eight months later, the company brought its equipment to clean up a mess at the Reflecting Pool in Washington. In April, as part of his effort to remake the nation’s capital city ahead of America’s 250th birthday, President Donald Trump drained the pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial to add a new coating to the bottom that would make the water shine “American flag blue.” But a week after the $14 million renovation was finished in June, an outbreak of algae floated along the water’s surface, hiding the new blue coating under a thick, mossy shade of green. Algae had long been a problem for the pool, but a Washington Post analysis of satellite data found that the post-renovation bloom was the worst outbreak dating back at least five years."
Meryl Kornfield reports for the Washington Post July 12, 2026.
