One of our frequent contributors, David Russell, suggested I reach out to the Chemical Processing audience for ideas on addressing the algal bloom at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Russell, founder of Global Environmental Operations Inc., is a registered professional engineer in multiple states. He specializes in hazardous waste management and pollution control across six continents. Add to that the fact that he grew up watching his father build large commercial pools in the Chicago area, and he knows a few things about pools and maintenance. Commercial pools are state health-regulated, requiring full water filtration four times daily (every six hours) and chlorine levels maintained between 0.5 to 3 mg/L, with a maximum of 5 mg/L, he noted.

Sunlight and warm temperatures are the enemy of chlorine, he also pointed out.

"I've seen a sunny day take a chlorine level in a pool from 0.5 mg/L to less than 0.1 mg/L in a matter of a few hours," he said in a LinkedIn post.

Here are the particulars he put together (the link is from Wikipedia for more background): The National Mall's Reflecting Pool is massive. It’s about 2,030 feet long, 167 feet wide and holds about 6.75 million gallons of water. Filtering it four times daily like commercial pools would require pumping about 18,750 gallons per minute through a filter house of up to 10,000 square feet — enough water to supply a city of 45,000.

Dave has posted his full solution to his blog.

Now, let's start offering up our own solutions. Send me your ideas ([email protected]), and I will keep a running list here. You can choose to be anonymous, but please give me some generic credentials so we know you're one of us!