Even the Internet’s Favorite Pool Guy Doesn’t Know How to Fix the Reflecting Pool

连互联网最受欢迎的泳池达人都不知道该如何修复林肯纪念堂倒影池

Steve Goodale isn’t used to attention like this. It’s not that he’s unfamiliar with being on camera: His YouTube Channel, Swimming Pool Steve, has amassed nearly 91,000 subscribers covering topics like how to bond concrete and clean a used hot tub. 史蒂夫·古代尔（Steve Goodale）并不习惯这种关注。这并不是说他不熟悉面对镜头：他的 YouTube 频道“游泳池史蒂夫”（Swimming Pool Steve）已经积累了近 9.1 万名订阅者，内容涵盖如何粘合混凝土以及清洁二手热水浴缸等主题。

But the saga of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which an algae bloom turned green following a renovation that President Donald Trump’s administration claimed would make the pool “American flag blue” in time for the US’s 250th birthday celebrations, has left people searching for answers about what the heck is going on. 然而，林肯纪念堂倒影池的“传奇”故事却让人们对到底发生了什么感到困惑。在唐纳德·特朗普政府声称该翻新工程能让水池在建国 250 周年庆典前呈现“美国国旗蓝”之后，一场藻类爆发却让池水变成了绿色。

The mystery has only deepened as chunks of the newly installed lining have appeared to break off and Trump has said the pool will be drained while, without evidence, blaming vandals for the problems. Add in US Park Police arresting people for touching the water like it’s some kind of biohazard, and that’s made Goodale, an award-winning pool expert, one of the most in-demand sources for anyone trying to figure out what’s happening to the iconic monument. 随着新安装的内衬出现脱落，谜团进一步加深。特朗普表示将排干池水，并毫无根据地将问题归咎于破坏者。再加上美国公园警察以接触池水如同接触生物危害品为由逮捕民众，这使得屡获殊荣的泳池专家古代尔成为了那些试图弄清这座标志性纪念碑究竟发生了什么的人们最想咨询的对象。

Pools are in Goodale’s blood: He learned the tricks of the trade from his Uncle Joe and refers to pools as “a family business.” I called him up to go over some of WIRED’s most burning pool questions. This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. 泳池事业流淌在古代尔的血液里：他从乔叔叔那里学到了行业诀窍，并将泳池称为“家族生意”。我打电话给他，探讨了一些《连线》（WIRED）杂志最关心的泳池问题。为简洁明了起见，本次采访内容经过了编辑。

WIRED: Are you sick of talking about all this yet? 《连线》：你对谈论这些事情感到厌烦了吗？

Steve Goodale: This is like the Simpsons episode where the devil force-feeds doughnuts to Homer. “So, you like talking about pools, do you?” “We heard you like talking about pools, so we’re going to give you pools 24/7. All the time.” I’ve been talking about them forever. It’s just now everybody is listening. 史蒂夫·古代尔：这就像《辛普森一家》里魔鬼强迫荷马吃甜甜圈的那一集。“所以，你喜欢谈论泳池，是吗？”“我们听说你喜欢谈论泳池，所以我们要让你 24 小时全天候谈论泳池。”我一直都在谈论这些，只是现在每个人都在听了。

You’ve gotten a lot of reporters calling you and asking, What exactly is wrong with the Lincoln Memorial pool? But from watching your videos, it sounds like it’s hard to say there’s one definitive thing wrong with it. 有很多记者打电话问你，林肯纪念堂的池子到底出了什么问题？但从你的视频来看，似乎很难说它只有一个明确的问题。

There’s not enough information in terms of pictures, videos, water chemistry values. A natural pond, an open-air, clear-water environment—that’s what this thing is—there are so many moving parts here. It’s the structure, it’s the water chemistry, it’s filtration. There’s so much stuff that has to work in conjunction with each other. 目前在图片、视频和水化学数值方面的信息还不够。这是一个天然池塘，一个露天、清水的环境——这就是它的本质——这里有太多的变数。涉及结构、水化学和过滤系统。有太多的东西需要相互配合才能正常运作。

I’ve been saying for decades now, I think swimming pools are the origin of the term “doesn’t hold water.” If you don’t do every part of your job properly, it’s very easy to see that there’s something going wrong. 几十年来我一直说，我认为游泳池是“站不住脚”（doesn’t hold water，直译为“存不住水”）这个词的起源。如果你没有把工作的每一个环节做好，很容易就会出问题。

Experts like you can see 101 ways in which a project like this could fail, even with a very talented, experienced team doing the renovation. 像你这样的专家能看出这样一个项目可能会有 101 种失败的方式，即使是由非常有才华、经验丰富的团队进行翻新。

Pools are mercilessly complicated—and I’m talking about little ones. This is literally monumental in size. It would take a master class in technical execution to be able to work on this thing in a competent capacity. 泳池复杂得令人绝望——我指的是小型的。而这个池子的规模简直是纪念碑级的。要胜任这项工作，需要大师级的技术执行力。

But you don’t need Swimming Pool Steve to tell you that when you see what appears to be the interior surface peeling up and floating in chunks, that’s an “oh, crap” moment. 但你不需要“游泳池史蒂夫”来告诉你，当你看到内表面似乎在剥落并成块漂浮时，那绝对是一个“糟糕了”的时刻。

I’ve seen some speculation that the hydrogen peroxide might be the cause of the bottom of the pool peeling. But you made a video about the lining, saying that it might be more complex than just that. 我看到一些猜测称，过氧化氢可能是池底剥落的原因。但你做了一个关于内衬的视频，说情况可能比这更复杂。

There is merit to this line of thought. These interior surfaces, they’re very chemically resistant, but they’re not infinitely chemically resistant. It would come down to what’s being used and what concentrations of it are being used—all these unanswered questions. 这种想法有一定道理。这些内表面虽然具有很强的耐化学性，但并非无限耐化学。这取决于使用了什么物质以及使用的浓度是多少——所有这些都是未解之谜。

But with a membrane system like this, there’s a lot of technical points you have to nail during installation. You have to account for ambient conditions like rain, sun, humidity, moisture control in your substrate, thickness, evenness, and chemical compatibility. There are so many things that can go wrong with that process. If the material hasn’t bonded to the substrate for any number of reasons, then ultimately, the entire system will fail. 但对于这样的膜系统，安装过程中有很多技术要点必须精准把控。你必须考虑环境条件，如雨水、阳光、湿度、基材的湿度控制、厚度、均匀度以及化学相容性。这个过程中有太多环节可能出错。如果由于某种原因材料没有与基材粘合好，那么最终整个系统都会失效。

Now the president is claiming that it’s vandalism. 现在总统声称这是蓄意破坏。

I can’t really get my head around the mechanism of vandalism that could cause this kind of damage. In terms of pictures and videos, it doesn’t look good, but it was fairly localized stuff. I haven’t seen anything that shows the 250-foot gash. At this point, I’m sure you can understand, I, more than anybody, have questions too. 我实在无法理解什么样的破坏行为能造成这种程度的损坏。从图片和视频来看，情况确实不妙，但那只是相当局部的现象。我还没看到任何显示有 250 英尺长裂口的证据。在这一点上，我相信你能理解，我比任何人都更想知道答案。

The Department of Interior keeps saying, “We’ve got the nanobubblers on, that should fix it.” 内政部一直说：“我们已经开启了纳米气泡发生器，这应该能解决问题。”

Nanobubbler technology is an ozone injection system—it essentially adds oxygen to the water. In theory, it’s used as a suppression system to kill algae directly, but it also has a secondary function of making an oxygen-rich environment in the water, which controls the release of phosphorus from the sediment layer at the bottom of the pool, the primary nutrient source for algae. 纳米气泡技术是一种臭氧注入系统——它本质上是向水中添加氧气。理论上，它被用作直接杀灭藻类的抑制系统，但它还有一个辅助功能，即在水中创造一个富氧环境，从而控制池底沉积层中磷的释放，而磷正是藻类的主要营养来源。

Will sediment at the bottom of the pool affect the blue color? Or is it scattered too thinly to affect it? 池底的沉积物会影响蓝色吗？还是说它分布得太薄，不会产生影响？

It certainly starts thin, but it has the potential to be a heavier layer. It really comes down to the quality of the source water being used and the design of the filtration system itself. 它开始时确实很薄，但有可能形成更厚的层。这实际上取决于所用水源的质量以及过滤系统本身的设计。

Water from the Tidal Basin is usually pumped directly into the pool, but when there’s a lot of algae in the basin, they switch to municipal drinking water. The administration hasn’t answered our questions about what the source of the water in the pool is right now. 潮汐湖（Tidal Basin）的水通常被直接泵入池中，但当湖中藻类较多时，他们会改用市政饮用水。对于目前池中水的来源，政府尚未回答我们的问题。

I’ve also been trying to find answers to that. But the water that’s in the pool is really what matters here. Now that it’s in the pool, what’s the phosphate level? What’s the nitrate level? Those would be good things to know. 我也一直在试图寻找答案。但池中现有的水才是问题的关键。既然水已经在池子里了，磷酸盐含量是多少？硝酸盐含量是多少？这些都是我们需要了解的重要信息。

So just grab a little bottle of water to test? 所以只要拿个小瓶子装点水去检测就行了？

Well, I’ve seen on the news that maybe you can’t even get near it anymore. But in theory, yes, if this were my swimming pool, I would walk right up to it, dunk my little bottle into it and take a sample. I would test for phosphates, and it would tell me an awful lot about the nutrients available for algae to grow. 嗯，我在新闻上看到，现在可能连靠近它都做不到了。但理论上是的，如果这是我的游泳池，我会直接走过去，把我的小瓶子浸进去取样。我会检测磷酸盐，这能告诉我很多关于藻类生长所需营养物质的信息。

In the big picture, how much of a mess is this to clean up? How much could it cost taxpayers? 从大局来看，清理这个烂摊子有多麻烦？这可能会花费纳税人多少钱？

I can’t speak to cost or budget. 我无法评论成本或预算。