Topline<\/p>\n
Washington, D.C.\u2019s Department of Energy and the Environment is planning to conduct an investigation after multiple ducks were found dead at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the Washington Post first reported, after images of dead ducks<\/a> and ducklings<\/a> spread on social media\u2014but experts are still unclear as to what killed the waterfowl.<\/p>\n A wildlife rehab center collected the dead ducks to conduct necropsies.<\/p>\n AFP via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n City Wildlife, an animal rehab center, collected two of the dead ducks to conduct necropsies, the Post<\/a> first reported.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s Department of Energy and the Environment will handle the primary investigation, City Wildlife representative Chris-Anne Burton told Forbes when reached by phone (Forbes has contacted the DOEE for comment).<\/p>\n One possible culprit could be the ongoing algae bloom, which turned the pool a sickly green color<\/a> last week\u2014researchers told multiple outlets the algae bloom appears to be blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, which is toxic to marine birds and other wildlife, according to the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n National Parks Service workers were previously seen dumping hydrogen peroxide into the pool last week\u2014however, this is a common treatment for pools, and Department of the Interior spokesperson Katie Martin previously told Forbes it had \u201cno harmful side effects to marine life or to the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of the Interior did not return a request for comment from Forbes about the recent waterfowl deaths.<\/p>\n Key Background<\/p>\n President Donald Trump drained the Reflecting Pool in April in order to make significant renovations to the body of water first opened in 1922, including painting the basin \u201cAmerican Flag Blue.\u201d However, when the pool was refilled in June, it quickly turned green once again when an algae bloom came back in force, which the Department of the Interior blamed on \u201cresidual\u201d algae from supply lines filling the pool up with water from the Tidal Basin, a spokesperson told CNN<\/a>. Martin told Forbes last week the Department of the Interior was using \u201cnanobubbler\u201d technology to treat the algae, which was now \u201cdead and being vacuumed up as we speak.\u201d Visitors soon saw large chunks of the new paint were soon seen peeling from the bottom of the basin, which Trump blamed on \u201cvandalism.\u201d <\/p>\n Surprising Fact<\/p>\n Trump has consistently admonished the Obama and Biden administrations for spending \u201cover 100 Million Dollars on the Reflecting Pool, and it never worked,\u201d even insisting \u201cit was rarely open due to leaks and \u2018stench.\u2019\u201d Biden never worked on any major renovations to the pool, according to an Associated Press<\/a> fact check, while Obama spent about $34 million on renovations. In a similar turn of events, the algae bloom returned<\/a> to the Reflecting Pool just weeks after Obama\u2019s renovations in 2012. Trump claims his administration spent about $16 million in total to repairs to the pool and the surrounding area.<\/p>\n Further ReadingForbesTrump Threatens To Sue ABC News\u2014Alleges \u2018False Reporting\u2019 About Reflecting PoolBy Siladitya Ray<\/a>ForbesTrump Says Reflecting Pool Repairs Will Begin \u2018Immediately\u2019By Zachary Folk<\/a>ForbesReflecting Pool Appears Green After Trump Renovation: PhotosBy Zachary Folk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline Washington, D.C.\u2019s Department of Energy and the Environment is planning to conduct an investigation after multiple ducks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1045287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[32,116509,286495,287588,70,16,15,14736,1717],"class_list":["post-1045286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-donald-trump","tag-ducks","tag-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool","tag-reflecting-pool","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-washington-d-c","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116800287255364739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}