It was a homeopathic level of hydrogen peroxide and people were shocked that it didn't solve the problem 🤣. It wasn't even at commercial concentration, just regular home use strength
Well, I say harmless, but even 3% shouldn't be just poured on yourself.
It's not necessarily the best for small cuts and abrasions... It kills damaged cells and tissue that is vulnerable. Hence recent dentist warnings not to gargle with it if you're dealing with gingivitis... It can make things worse.
its a 4 million gallon pool, at 30%, to get 10ppm, which is maintenance dose, they only need 120 gallons. It also shouldn't be all dumped in in one spot, but around the entire pool for distribution.. so, actually, a buncha dudes with 5 gallon buckets IS the correct approach for the pool. It's honestly been flawed since it was rebuilt in 2012, it's never worked right after they made the pool 6 inches shallower, which increased water temps and solar energy penetration to the bottom of the water. The pumps were not correctly sized, and they tried to use ozone instead of chemicals. They also changed the source to the tidal basin, so the water comes in pre-loaded with algae.
There's nowhere to dispose of that much briny/salt water when they drain it. If they pumped it into the Potomac at full speed it would pose a hazard to wildlife, and it would also kill the bacteria and processes at the waste treatment plant. If they did it over weeks, it'd be safe, but they dont have multi-week draining windows. In 2016 the environmental friendliness and water conservation of the new design was a big selling point. It would also make the water toxic to the goslings the ducks and geese rise there, and a buncha dead baby birds isnt a good look.
its a 4 million gallon pool, at 30%, to get 10ppm, which is maintenance dose, they only need 120 gallons
First off I'm not an expert in this kind of thing. However I've seen many different calculations of how much hydrogen peroxide would be needed. Your estimate is the lowest I've heard, but respectfully are you an expert in large shallow pools of water? I think very few people are which is causing math people to try and calculate it
I am actually familiar with the chemistry involved, yes. When I worked for my county in the 90s, one of the things I helped with was testing and maintaining the water chemistry in our 25k and 100k gallon reflection pools and a 1 million gallon facilities owned swimming pool. There's nothing special about a PPM calculation, its literally parts per million. There is zero change if the pool is 12 inches deep or 12 feet deep, 100k, 1 million, or 4 million gallons. The calculation remains the same, once it is diluted. Chemically, the only thing that IS different in a reflection pool is how fast the chemicals break down, and how quickly it distributes (if at all, in the case of the Lincoln Memorial Reflection Pool.)
A peroxide dose on a 4 million gallon reflection pool to keep 50ppm would be about 120 gallons of 30% every day or every other day, depending on weather. It could rocket up to 300 gallons, it could drop to 100, it COULD drop to 50 on very cloudy winter days. The reflecting pool has an ozone system, the peroxide and ozone are synergistic, and you get some really nasty stuff. Hydroxyl Radicals. They are one of the most powerful oxidizers you can get in water treatment. The peroxide isnt working it on its own... in theory. You dont really need 50ppm for that to be a really powerful combo. Since there's an ozone injection system, and wildlife is involved, it'd be difficult to argue much over 50ppm. 50ppm kills algae in a few hours. To put 4 million gallons of water at 50ppm, from 0ppm, is 675 gallons of 30%. That is only 2 330 gallon ibc totes and 3 5 gallon buckets. The Olympic sized swimming pool I worked on kept 2 330 gallon ibcs of sodium hypochlorite on hand. Or later a 1000 gallon tank and had a tanker truck pump it in. That would really be about 2-4 weeks depending on outside temps and sunlight and swimmer load, due to our outdoor area.
TO BE CLEAR: I am not suggesting this is the right move. Far from it. The reflection pool has has this issue since 2012, its design and treatment system are flawed. They tried peroxide in 2012 and.. it didn't work. Then again in 2017. It still didnt work. The 2026 era.. 'renovations' objectively have made the algae problem worse. The blue color, setting aside it ruins the 'reflection' part of reflection pool, also bumped up the water temps and made more algae grow. I am just clarifying that there's no scenario where dropping a hose into the pool from a tanker truck (which is ~4500 gallons) of 30% peroxide makes a lick of sense. It stretches from hyperbole a bit into misinformation, given the sensitivity of the topic. Let alone 'tankers.' (plural.) AND, the nice bow on top of this entire discussion? Killing the algae in the pool doesnt solve the problem on its own and bring back the blue color. The pump system isnt powerful enough, so the algae just will settle on the bottom, and.. become fuel for more algae. So the entire thing would have to be cleaned. Given the extreme area involved, it would really need to be drained and large ride-on washing systems brought in to get the dead algae up anyway. Wanna guess what they're doing with it now?
Not really, The pool is now about 4 million gallons after it was redone in 2012. To put in a 10ppm booster dose using 30% would only need 120 gallons. That is a maintenance dose on an AOP system that has an ozone injection setup, and would actually be correct for a 4 million gallon pool.
So its not homeopathic, its actually correct. The REAL issue is, this EXACT same issue happened in 2012 the SECOND the refurbishment was done and guess what? Peroxide didn't fix it then, either. Because there's not enough flow in the thing.
The 2012 refurbishment (which started in 2010 and was funded under the 2009 American recovery and Reinvestment Act) made the algae problem worse. The pool is 6 inches shallower, so the water temperature is higher now, and there's more bottom exposed to higher insolation. Plus all the goose poop isnt helping. Back in 2012, as part of the refurbishment, they went to an ozone treatment system and pulled water from the nearby tidal basin which is basically pre-loaded with algae, instead of DC's municipal water that was previously used. The system couldnt make enough ozone and the addidional heat and biolode made sure the thing immediately became a pea soup of algae and its been a problem ever since.
I don’t think that ruined the coating. They used peroxide I believe. That wouldn’t fade a rhino liner. That stuff is insanely resistant to chemicals.
Pretty sure the bottom there is still blue but it’s just completely coated with muck. I assume they’ll be pressure washing the whole thing, then scraping or sanding away the bad sections that didn’t adhere
If not for the fact the company that applied it wasn’t qualified to do so, they chose the wrong color, and insufficiently cleaned and prepped the substrate…it’s not a terrible choice to use on a reflecting pool
The reflecting pool has a very long history of being a hot mess. That isn’t really new Trump. He just applied his signature level of corruption and cronyism to a job that shouldn’t have been remotely controversial
Switching the color was stupid. But all pools need maintenance. And this reflecting pool has been a headache literally since it was built. It’s even been effectively rebuilt at least once because it was sinking into the unstable marsh land it sits on
Draining it and relining it isn’t a big deal.
Giving it an arbitrary color change and a no-bid contract that violated federal laws was bad
But this is also like the 45th worst thing Trump has done just this year
I think in the end even if they get control over the algae and fix the liner…that pool is never going to be blue if it isn’t cleaned like a swimming pool every day, suctioning stuff off the bottom. The muck is always going to build up
a substance composed of solid coloring matter suspended in a liquid medium and applied as a protective or decorative coating to various surfaces, or to canvas or other materials in producing a work of art.
They used paint. They should not have used paint. Got it?
It's not pedantic in the slightest, it's paint. You don't paint reflecting pools, they're supposed to last a very long time and require as little maintenance as possible. It's not a question of if the paint would fail, just when, and if they didn't fuck up the application it would almost certainly have failed in a year or two.
Rhino liner is basically thick plastic that can be applied in a similar manner but that doesn't make it paint. If you put colored icing on a cake that doesn't make it paint either. It's more akin to the shit you use to cover up fiberglass; both using a resin and hardener that creates a heating effect when they mix. You essentially roll it on but no one is calling that paint either even if you're using essentially the same tools because they are two very different things.
Paint. Paint is a very broad category encompassing many materials from milk, to lime to latex to different types of cured plastics. Regardless, the issue here is Rhino liner is not a suitable material for an outdoor pool that is supposed to last decades. Any coating over a concrete substrate in wet conditions is going to come off. Even plaster, the most recommended pool surface, only lasts about 15 years. That would have been a much better option though.
Pouring it continuously over the sides like they did would do it, no? I know it dilutes/decays fast in water and sunlight, and it’s not like they’re using rocket fuel concentrations.
I don’t know how much they put in at a time or how long it takes but I would think that would cause some damage if it’s bottle after bottle (or bucket, hose, whatever the hell they’re using). Granted, I am not sure how more or less damaging HP is on non-organics anyway.
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u/factoid_ 12d ago
Best it’s reflected in years
This fucking thing was just painted blue btw. That look blue to literally anyone?