The Virginia company that resurfaced the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool under a $14.7 million no-bid contract botched the job in at least 85 places, according to an inspection report the contractor commissioned.
The 75-page “failure analysis,” completed Aug. 6 by Atlantic Coating Inspection, which was obtained by the Washington Post, blames improper materials and a rush to finish in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations – but it makes no mention of vandalism to the liner, which is the explanation President Donald Trump has repeatedly given for the pool’s problems.
The report documents nearly 40 blisters caused by trapped moisture or chemical fumes, peeling in nearly two dozen spots, and buckling along eight of the pool’s 10 expansion joints.
Some of the peeling probably happened because crews were still applying the coating on June 3, the day before the pool was refilled. The material needed 72 hours to cure, but one photo shows workers still using spray guns the day after water started flowing in.
The report also found that the coating over the expansion joints wasn’t flexible enough for their “dynamic movement.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had posted on X that the material passed a test with “flying colors” and was “in perfect condition.”
Atlantic Industrial Coatings (AIC) got the contract this spring. The Interior Department had argued in a memo that “only a limited pool of contractors possess the qualification and equipment” for the job.
In its own Aug. 14 report to the government, AIC blamed “human oversight." It called most of the failures “cosmetic” but said others were “systemic,” and it agreed to cover repairs under its warranty.
The findings undercut the administration’s vandalism story. Federal prosecutors charged four people with damaging the liner, including former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, although the charges were later dropped.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro faulted Interior officials for initially providing “less than fulsome information,” and said Hearn wouldn’t have been indicted if prosecutors had known contractor error was to blame.
Trump kept blaming Hearn anyway. On Aug. 9, he conceded on Truth Social that “there was also some contractor error done by rushing the job for a July Fourth opening,” but insisted “it was a very small area of this massive Pool, and was relatively inconsequential.”
An Interior spokesperson said “AIC is contractually obligated to fix the Reflecting Pool” and is “well on its way to doing so.”
White House spokesperson Taylor Rodgers didn’t address the report’s findings, but she called the repairs “another example of President Trump restoring our nation’s capital for the American people.”
Last week, Trump told reporters the fixes would make the pool “as vandal-proof as you can get.”
AIC and the inspection firm did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment.
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