Photo by His Noodly Appendage

Algae 1, newly renovated Reflecting Pool 0.

Despite the pleas of the algae lobby, the Post reports that the National Park Service has drained the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as a two-step process to deal with algae that had developed in the water since a $34 million renovation was finished in August

The Park Service has said that it will refill the pool with water that is treated with more ozone than before, effectively minimizing any future algae blooms:

Last week, officials began to filter out some of the algae. Most of what remained was dead, Johnson said, but the process of letting the algae disintegrate naturally could have taken months.

So officials decided to increase the ozone level of the pool. And after meeting with aquatic biologists and water resource management experts, they decided it would be better to drain, refill the pool and then recalibrate its ozone level.

The pool takes close to seven million gallons of water. Draining it and refilling it will cost $100,000.