The troubled repair of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was botched far beyond what was previously disclosed, according to a 75-page failure analysis obtained by the Washington Post. The inspection report, issued internally on August 6 and commissioned by the contractor in charge of the repairs, documents scores of deficiencies in the pool's liner — blisters, peeling and cracks of varying severity — photographed and catalogued with their likely causes.

Among the most striking findings: some of the peeling likely occurred because workers were still applying the coating the day before the pool was refilled with water on June 4, even though the material required 72 hours to cure. Notably, the report makes no mention of vandalism of the kind the Trump administration cited during the summer as a source of the pool's troubles.

The sequence, as recounted by the Post, is damning. After Atlantic Industrial Coatings (AIC) won a no-bid $14.7 million contract to fix problems that had dogged the Reflecting Pool for decades, work began and the pool was refilled by early June. Within days, a massive algal bloom turned the water green; then flakes of peeled blue paint began breaking the surface.

In a statement issued Tuesday, an Interior Department spokesperson said AIC is contractually obligated to fix the Reflecting Pool and is well on its way to doing so. The affair has already spawned lawsuits and congressional scrutiny over the no-bid contract's swelling costs.