{"id":239839,"date":"2026-06-27T23:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/when-a-pool-or-pond-turns-green-with-algae-dont-reach-for-chemicals-nature-has-better-solutions"},"modified":"2026-06-27T23:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:29:07","slug":"when-a-pool-or-pond-turns-green-with-algae-dont-reach-for-chemicals-nature-has-better-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/when-a-pool-or-pond-turns-green-with-algae-dont-reach-for-chemicals-nature-has-better-solutions","title":{"rendered":"When a pool or pond turns green with algae, don\u2019t reach for chemicals\u2014nature has better solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/when-a-pool-or-pond-turns-green-with-algae-dont-reach-for-chemicals-nature-has-better-solutions.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool turned green with algae just days after a <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/reflecting-pool-renovations-cost-16-million\/story?id=134024265\" target=\"_blank\">US$15 million renovation<\/a>, the U.S. government scrambled for <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-reflecting-pool-renovation-1235f9417697bb2e1f56e14e4d2214de?\" target=\"_blank\">chemicals and expensive technical solutions<\/a> to fix the iconic landmark.<\/p>\n<p>Trying to kill algae with chemicals is a common response when community ponds or other water features go green. But as a scientist who studies freshwater ecology, I can tell you there are better solutions that cost far less, last longer and carry less risk of harm to pets and wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than battling against nature, these alternatives <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.aea9563\" target=\"_blank\">work with nature<\/a> for long-term solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool turned green with algae just days after a US$15 million renovation, the U.S. government scrambled for chemicals and expensive technical solutions to fix the iconic landmark. Trying to kill algae with chemicals is a common response when community ponds or other water features go green. But as a scientist [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1490],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}