Even if it’s nearly the right color, it ain’t Mountain Dew.
I’m not talking about the reflecting pool in Washington, D.C., which turned a distinct shade of green a week after it was reopened following a $15 million renovation. Bird waste, water from the Tidal Basin and soaring temperatures have been blamed for that coloring — its peeling blue paint job aside.
No, this park pool is a bit closer to home but now also glows in the sun courtesy of a similar green goo.
The Cypress Plaza water feature, a small ankle-deep affair great for feet but not for ducks so much, and featuring concrete stepping stones, has been roped off with caution tape.
I noticed it June 18 after covering the Friends of the Abilene Public Library book sale. The pool was surrounded by traffic cones and yellow tape. Upon closer examination, the water had a distinct color which was not present when it had been dedicated about a week earlier on June 9.
But the same factors that caused the algae bloom in D.C.’s reflecting pool apparently have been at work in West Texas, too. Only it’s not ducks who dipped into the pool (though, don’t count your chickens just yet), but toddlers and tweens.
Several times during the Children’s Art and Literacy Festival, kids splashed into the water feature with the kind of exuberance only experienced by those with limited body mass and the springiest knees of their fresh lifetimes. Whatever covered all of those excitable bodies afterward had the chance to marinate in the pool, all powered by the baking Texas sun.
But of course there are plenty of other sources blowing on the wind that can result in algae. And maybe it’s all my fault. I earned a finger-wagging from my wife when I slipped my own shoes off after the dedication to test the depths.
In my defense, Donna Albus and Susan Holland had already forded that stream before me. Besides, the pool is located roughly where our newsroom couch used to be, albeit 15 feet or so lower. That spot naturally radiates relaxation.
Cypress Plaza had been in the works for more than two years, a $2 million project paid entirely with private funds. The green space replaced the Abilene Reporter-News building which had been empty since a 2018 fire and sale.
It was the capstone to a broader renovation project to make the Cypress Street corridor more pedestrian friendly. That included the removal of traffic signals and trees which had pushed up sidewalks, reconfigured parking and switching the street to a two-way traffic pattern.
In a Tuesday night statement from the city of Abilene, officials blamed the bloom on a few loose ends in the pool’s installation.
“The Cypress Plaza water feature is temporarily out of service while lighting, electrical and plaster work is completed,” officials said in the media release. “This work was part of the project plan but was paused at a point to allow the water feature to safely open at the time of the plaza’s ribbon cutting event.”
Out of an “abundance of caution,” they said, the pool was taped-off as they wait on the electrical components to be replaced.
“Cleaning of the feature has also paused while crews prepare to replaster the bottom,” the statement finished. “We anticipate the water feature will be in a more presentable condition within the next week or so.”
Until then, I guess “algae” seeing you in all the old places.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Downtown park goes green, but not how you think
Reporting by Ronald W. Erdrich, Abilene Reporter-News / Abilene Reporter-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ronald W. Erdrich, Abilene Reporter-News | USA TODAY Network
