Workers racing to turn reflecting pool blue for Trump may be at risk, union warns

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Workers renovating one of Washington DC’s most historically symbolic sites in a project ordered by Donald Trump may be risking their safety as they race to finish on time for the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations, a union monitoring the site has warned.

Trade union scrutiny has focused on the reflecting pool on the US capital’s National Mall – scene of Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I have a dream speech” – after it was drained of water and fenced off from the public to allow contractors the chance to upgrade it by 4 July.

The pool, a Washington landmark since it was dug in 1922, is currently the site of frenetic repair activity, its usual watery surface occupied instead by vehicle and work equipment. Tourists visiting the area have found their view obscured by black tarpaulin.

Leaks and algae blooms have for decades dogged the 2,000ft pool, which sits between the Lincoln and George Washington memorial monuments, turning its water green and confounding previous expensive government-commissioned repair schemes, including one commissioned by Barack Obama’s administration.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/workers-racing-turn-reflecting-pool-100036841.html

Donny Dipshit had them drive the Whitehouse limo over it. That's known as "the Beast". It's armored and is said to weigh as much 22,000 lbs.

Needless to say, driving that big rig over the pool didn't help.

[underpants]

1. Rush job (by May 22) Exposure to volatile chemicals - more from the article

Zaldivar said he was concerned for the safety of the workers on the project, none of whom had been willing to talk to him. “They are afraid to touch the subject, although I will continue to come and try to have conversations with workers,” he said. “With this project, they are trying to rush on a timescale that is most likely to leave some liability with the contractor.

“The chemicals are hazardous. My concern is usually the level of risk when it’s rushed. Are workers taking the rightful steps to protect themselves?”

Surveying the cordoned-off scene from near the Lincoln Memorial, Al Havinga, a retired civil servant with the US Environmental Protection Agency on a cycle ride with two friends, voiced fears about air pollution arising from the coating materials being used.

“All this stuff is volatile,” he said. “People are breathing in poisonous chemicals. There’s no consideration to the risk to the public in applying this stuff. I would guess they are using volatile organic chemicals. There’s no information on that. It’s opaque.”

[Totally Tunsie]

2. If, in fact, this painting is so embedded with volatile chemicals,

what does that mean with regard to the water refilling the pool? Will that be so compromised to be of danger in the future, especially once heat and sunlight raise the water temperatures? Will visitors be affected? Sounds like a cesspool in the making.