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WASHINGTON (CN) — A cultural advocacy nonprofit sued the Trump administration Monday, seeking to block President Donald Trump’s effort to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with an “American flag” blue.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and argued the government had once again unilaterally moved forward on a project that requires congressional notice and a review process.
“This latest desecration of the reflecting pool is part of a pattern — epitomized notably by the rush to destroy the East Wing of the White House — in which this administration willfully disregards legal limits established by Congress,” the nonprofit said. “Every day that the resurfacing continues, the historic character of the Reflecting Pool is being further and fundamentally altered.”
Trump announced the project on April 23, setting a deadline for the 250th anniversary celebrations throughout Washington on July 4.
He awarded a $6.9 million no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which previously worked on projects at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
Such projects require the government go through a bidding process to find the most cost-effective and reliable contractor. To award this contract, the Trump administration invoked an exemption meant for urgent situations to prevent “serious injury, financial or other, to the government,” and only pointed to the July Fourth celebration, the nonprofit said.
Speaking in the Oval Office on April 23, Trump said the color choice would ultimately make the pool “much better than it ever was” since its construction in 1922.
The Trump administration has defended the project as necessary to repair and improve the pool basin, which faces significant issues caused by faulty plumbing in its filtration system that results in a recurring layer of green algae each year.
“President Trump has done more to make our nation’s capital a shining beacon than any other president in the history of this country,” an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Trump’s project does not include work to address the structural issues and will likely require further repairs in the coming years.
The nonprofit is requesting U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, issue a temporary restraining order to halt further painting and maintain the pool floor’s dark grey color.
Nichols ordered the parties to file a joint status report by 5 p.m. EST Tuesday to determine whether an emergency hearing is necessary.
The nonprofit specifically argues the government has violated Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to confer with the National Capital Planning Commission and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.
During the last renovation of the pool in 2010, the National Park Service uploaded 20 documents onto its public Planning, Environment and Public Comment website, including meeting notices and notes, environmental assessment documents, programmatic agreements, memorandums of agreement and submissions to the fine arts and planning commissions.
Currently, the Park Service has not published any documents from the active repainting project.
Further, the nonprofit argues the government has violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to prepare and release an environmental assessment, despite the apparent risk inherent in adding industrial-grade paint to over 300,000 square feet of the pool basin’s surface in contact with millions of gallons of water.
Cultural Landscape Foundation President and CEO Charles Birnbaum slammed the project in a statement, calling the blue tint “more appropriate to a resort or theme park.”
“The Reflecting Pool should not be viewed in isolation; it is part of the larger ensemble of designed landscapes that comprise the National Mall,” Birnbaum said. “The design intent, to create a reflective surface that is subordinate, is fundamental to the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.”
The project is just the latest effort by Trump to remake the nation’s capital in his image, a growing list that includes his demolition of the East Wing and construction of a ballroom, the proposed demolition of the Kennedy Center and the proposed 250-foot “Independence Arch.”
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has already blocked construction of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom — while allowing construction on an underground bunker to move forward — finding the president failed to obtain congressional approval. That case is now before the D.C. Circuit.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper recently heard arguments regarding the proposed renovation of the Kennedy Center, which would close the nation’s premier performance arts center for two years, as well as testimony regarding the substantial water infiltration around the facility.
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