Trump donor's firm wins no-bid deal to clean Reflecting Pool

In April 2026, the National Park Service awarded a $1.7 million contract to Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio, also known as Green Water Solutions, to install a permanent "nano bubble" ozone water-purification system in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of events marking the country's 250th birthday. The Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is normally required, citing an exemption meant for urgent situations; a public filing acknowledged that multiple firms had expressed interest in providing such a system, and the document set no specific deadline by which it had to be installed. Greenwater, founded in Ohio in 2019, had previously received only one other federal contract.

Federal contracting records show the firm's ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by John J. Cafaro, a longtime Republican donor to Trump and a neighbor of Mar-a-Lago. The water-treatment company listed Cafaro's Palm Beach mansion as its Florida address and listed his trust's phone number and email in Ohio lobbying records. Cafaro has given more than $300,000 to political committees connected to Trump, gave $50,000 to a 2016 Trump veterans fund-raiser, and pleaded guilty in 2001 to conspiracy to bribe Representative James Traficant of Ohio. Trump has called him "a fantastic man." 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 2026.

The Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, said it had not been aware of Cafaro's political affiliation when it awarded the contract and that the firm was selected for its expertise, work force, and materials; both the department and a White House spokeswoman said the White House was not involved in the selection. By June 2026, algae had returned and turned the pool green, and workers were vacuuming algae and adding hydrogen peroxide. The Park Service separately awarded a $14.7 million no-bid contract, citing the same urgent-need justification, to a Virginia firm, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, to apply blue waterproofing to the pool's floor; a section of that coating later detached and floated to the surface.