Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool

WASHINGTON — A business tied to a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump was given a no-bid contract to install a water-purification system in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool earlier this spring.

Now that work is coming under scrutiny after algae blooms have come back and turned the iconic pool in Washington a vibrant shade of green rather than the American-flag blue Trump says he chose.

The contract shows that the National Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is typically required, and gave a $1.7 million contract to the firm, Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio.

Federal contracting records show that firm’s ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by John J. Cafaro, a donor to Trump and a neighbor to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Florida. The water treatment company also listed Cafaro’s Palm Beach mansion as its address in Florida corporate records, and listed his investment trust’s phone number and email in Ohio lobbying records.

Paint was seen peeling from the floor of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, weeks after a $14 million renovation that included a new color President Trump called “American Flag Blue.” pic.twitter.com/pCYznXRoFF

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 18, 2026

Cafaro, a longtime Republican donor whom Trump has described as a “fantastic man,” was once involved in a high-profile bribery scandal. He has also donated to Democrats in the past, and his daughter Capri Cafaro served in the Ohio state Senate as a Democrat from 2007 to 2016.

On Thursday, when a photographer for The New York Times visited the pool, about half of its water remained green, as workers sought to vacuum out algae. Workers have also added hydrogen peroxide to the water in recent days in an attempt to kill the algae, the Interior Department said in an email to the Times.

The department, which oversees the National Park Service, said that the firm had already brought temporary water-purification sites to the pool, and that it was expected to install a permanent system this week.

Katie Martin, a spokesperson for the department, declined to say why the Park Service had refilled the pool before the permanent system was in place — raising the risk that it would quickly be clouded with algae.

The connection of Greenwater Services — also known as Green Water Solutions — to Cafaro is being reported first by The New York Times.

Neither Greenwater Services nor Cafaro responded to requests for comment on Thursday. The chief executive of Greenwater Services previously declined to comment to the Times about its contract.

Martin, the spokesperson for the Interior Department, said that the department had not been aware of Cafaro’s political affiliation when it awarded the contract.

“This company was selected because they had the expertise, workforce and materials” needed to complete the job in time, she said.

Martin and a White House spokesperson both said the White House was not involved in the selection of this company.

The Times previously reported that David Schutzenhofer, the general manager of Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, advised the Park Service on the project and was in contact with Greenwater in January.

The Reflecting Pool’s water is circulated via underground pipes to a nearby building full of filters and water purifiers. The Park Service had planned for years to upgrade that system by adding a “nano bubble” device that killed algae with tiny bubbles of ozone gas.

In a public filing, the Park Service said that multiple firms had expressed interest in providing such a system. But in April, it gave the work directly to Greenwater Services, a company that federal records show had received only one other federal contract.

The Park Service justified its decision to bypass competition by citing an exemption meant for urgent situations: It said there was no time to consider other offers because the system had to be installed in time for events celebrating the country’s 250th birthday. That document did not give a specific date by which the system had to be installed.

Another no-bid contract for $14.7 million had been awarded to a Virginia firm, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, for the same reason of urgent need. That business was paid to spread blue waterproofing material on the pool’s concrete floor.

That work, too, shows signs of potential trouble. On Thursday, a section of the pool’s new layer of blue waterproofing appeared to have detached from the bottom and floated to the pool’s surface.

Martin, the Interior Department spokesperson, declined to comment on that. Atlantic Industrial Coatings did not respond to a request for comment.

Greenwater Services was founded in 2019 in Ohio. State records in Ohio and Florida show that it has shared two addresses, a phone number and an email with Cafaro and his trusts.

Cafaro’s family business was in developing shopping centers, but he branched into other industries, including aerospace. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to conspiracy to bribe Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-Ohio, and later testified against Traficant.

Cafaro’s ties to Trump go back at least 10 years. In 2016, Trump boycotted a Republican debate and held a competing event, a televised fundraiser for veterans causes. One of the major donors was Cafaro, who gave $50,000.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By David A. Fahrenthold/Salwan Georges
c. 2026 The New York Times Company

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