June 29, 2006
The Ty-D-Bol™ Memorial
Local blogger and Condoleezza Rice devotee Princess Sparkle Pony is wondering: Why on earth has the water at the U.S. Navy Memorial turned blue? Indeed, her majesty has turned up photographic evidence of the unnatural hue of the water in the Memorial's fountains. As always, the Pink Pony asks the tough questions:
Is it intentional? A prank? One thing is for sure, it now resembles the Ty-D-Bol™ Memorial more than anything. Honey, listen, next time you want to get creative with the fountain, use colored lights and Liberace, OK?Hear, hear. Armed with 2 parts curiosity and 1 part concern, DCist boldly sent an e-mail to the U.S. Navy Memorial press office, demanding answers. And sure enough, when we got the Navy Memorial spokesperson on the phone, she confirmed what Sparkly Pony may have only meant as a joke: the water in the U.S. Navy Memorial was treated with Ty-D-Bol™ in order to remove some algae build-up in the fountains. Go figure.
But wait, there's more good news! According to the Memorial spokesperson, the new blue water has gotten such "a great response" that they're thinking about continuing to add that sparkling Ty-D-Bol™ for a while longer. Even though the fountains are now clean, its waters will run blue at least through July 4, if not longer. For our part, we're not so sure how long we'd really like to see the Navy Memorial looking like a big toilet. What do you think of the blue water, dear readers?
Photo nabbed from Princess Sparkle Pony.
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Is it still safe to drink?
Thumbs down. Way too Vegas/Disneyworld for downtown DC.
Agreed, Nate. Plus tourists still let their kids play in the fountain as I saw first hand last weekend.
OMG, bless you guys for doing that... that... what's that called? Oh yeah, reporting and finding out why such an unsightly bruise has been visited upon us.
Obviously I think it's really ugly and I hope they come to their senses.
"Some" algae? A few weeks ago the water was neon green. There was also a sausage floating in it (unrelated).
If algea was the problem they could have forgone the unfriendly chemicals and tacky color by filtering with diatomaceous earth. Quick and easy.
This will make me feel better about pooping in it.
mmmm..chemicals
So that's what I did with my sausage! As for 'unsightly bruise' - seconded with gusto. It's a memorial, not a minigolf course.
Hmmmmmm, we have how many fountains in DC? How many are blue? Viva la difference!! I think it looks kinda cool, and I think it will be funny to see what happens to the tourist kids when they play in it (blue hands and feet anyone?)
Bleah. You see the same thing in the fountains in front of the Supreme Court.
"What do you think of the blue water, dear readers?"
I think it tastes better than brown water.
If the water is so clean, then why does it smell really, really bad?
I can't believe they got good feedback on this. If said feedback was delivered by an obese midwestern family in matching American flag shirts, perhaps the memorial folks should consider the source and their obvious lack of aesthetic judgment.
The blue water looks horribly unnatural. The green was at least somewhat natural (algae are natural, right?), and the fountain parts still appeared white. Like they should.
That said, my parents (overweight midwesterners that they are) will love seeing the blue water on July 4th.
Since the Navy's primary color is blue (admittedly not this shade), I'm fine with it. Were it the Naval Academy's other color, gold, then we might have problems...
The fountain south of the WH was this eerie blue color last week, as well.
i think i'd prefer red.
I'm all in favor of colored water. And if making the water blue becomes an annual July 4th tradition, then all the better. I just returned from Cape May NJ where every putt-putt course uses blue water in their fountains and fake volcanoes. The water in Pershing Park also has a blue color added, though it's not as opaque as the Navy Memorial's.
What would be cool is if the massive rainstorms caused a big flood of blue water around the memorial.
Why don't they just add koolaid packets? Then it would taste good too.
Holy shit I walked by yesterday and the picture simply doesn't do it justice. It's awful.
Any update on this? It's been blue for over a month now, and the algae just seems to be getting worse.
Hi!
I'm with the US Navy Memorial Foundation. We just found out about the fact that you mentioned us here (or at least our fountains, and their sudden and unexpected blue color). Firstly - thank you guys for noticing us! Secondly, our press release was intended to have something of a tongue-in-cheek nature, I believe. I guess that didn't come through. As soon as the algae is dealt with, the blue water will be removed.
Even though the initial plan was just to run the blue water a few days, it's being run continuously because the algae just won't die. We figured it was better to have blue water than to have an algae-encrusted memorial. The blue water should hopefully disappear by summer's end.